Buddy Johnson

A large part of any Hollywood career involves finding the proper industry mentor. In the case of writer-producer Buddy Johnson, his ticket to success was the large, rambunctious Wayans family clan. On the television side, it began for Johnson with a number of writing assignments for the late-1990s WB sitcom "The Wayans Bros." and continued early the next decade with writer-producer work on ABC sitcom "My Wife and Kids," starring Damon Wayans. But it is on the big screen that Johnson's partnership with the Wayans has really paid off. He helped create the characters for the "Scary Movie" comedy-film franchise, which launched to huge success in 2000 and has been revived for numerous installments. Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans and co-written by brothers Marlon and Shawn, "Scary Movie" went on to become the second highest-grossing horror comedy of all time at the domestic box office, behind "Ghostbusters." Johnson has also applied his joke-writing abilities to the TV-awards-show arena, helping script the '98 MTV Video Music Awards and contributing to several annual BET Awards telecasts.