Vince Gilligan Biography

Vince Gilligan was born in Richmond, Virginia, on February 10, 1967. His father was an insurance claims adjuster and his mother was a school teacher in Richmond, Virginia. His parents divorced in 1974, after which he and his younger brother moved to Farmville and Chesterfield County with their mother. He attended the JP Wynne Campus School.

During his growing up days he dabbled in making amateurish fiction films, with one of his first being Space Wreck. He also won the first prize for his age group in a film competition at the University of Virginia.

He attended the prominent Interlochen Center for the Arts after winning a scholarship and later moved back to Chesterfield after eighth grade to attend high school.

He graduated from Lloyd Bird High School in 1985 and then attended Tisch School of the Arts in New York on a scholarship and was awarded the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film production.

While studying at the university, he was given the Virginia Governor's Screenwriting Award in 1989 for writing the screenplay for Home Fries. This was later turned into a film by the same name and released in 1998. It starred Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson and Jake Busey and was directed by Dean Parisot.

Vince Gilligan’s career in show business began when he wrote the screenplay of the 1993 romantic comedy film Wilder Napalm. Later, he was hired to be the consulting producer of the television series Harsh Realm and wrote three episodes of the short-lived TV series Robbery Homicide Division. He also wrote an episode of the television series Night Stalker.

His breakthrough moment came when he joined the team of the very successful and popular television series, The X-Files, aired on Fox network. He first wrote for the series in its second season for the episode ‘Soft Light’

He wrote 29 more episodes for The X-Files and was its co-executive producer for 44 episodes, executive producer for 40 episodes and co-producer for 24 episodes. He was also the supervising producer for 20 episodes.

He then co-created a spin-off series of The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen. But it did not do well and ran only for one season comprising of 13 episodes.

Another series that Vince Gilligan created, along with David Shore, called Battle Creek was based on an old script of his. It aired in 2015, but did not do well and was not renewed after the first season consisting of thirteen episodes.

Vince Gilligan climbed the ladder of success and gained enormous fame when he created the crime drama series, Breaking Bad, for AMC, the multinational basic cable television channel, the flagship property of AMC Networks.

The show ran for five seasons from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013 and had a total of 62 episodes. It tells the story of a chemistry school teacher Walter White, played by actor Bryan Cranston, who is suffering lung cancer and who turns to a life of crime selling meth in order to secure the financial future of his family.

The first season of the series received positive reviews and season four and five saw a massive rise in viewership, with the final season becoming one of the most-watched cable shows in America.

The series won many awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards and entered the Guinness World Records in 2013 as the most critically acclaimed show of all time.

Vince Gilligan later co-created ‘Better Call Saul’ with writer Peter Gould. The deal between Sony Pictures Television and AMC was to produce a ‘Breaking Bad’ spin-off prequel and focus on the character of Saul Goodman from the original series, before he became Walter White's lawyer.

The first episode of the series premiered on February 8, 2015 and in July 2018 Vince Gilligan agreed to stay with Sony TV on a new three-year deal. He has also written and directed several episodes of the series.

Vince Gilligan has never been married. He’s said to have been in a long relationship with his girlfriend named Holly Rice.