Honored with three Emmy Awards for their work as writers and producers of the top-rated comedy series "Murphy Brown," Gary Dontzig and Steven Peterman are currently developing new series for Warner Bros. Television.

Gary Dontzig is a graduate of American University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. He pursued his interest in acting as a graduate student at New York University School of Performing Arts, and later went on to perform at some of America's most prestigious regional theatres, including eight productions at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. After permanently settling in L.A., he appeared as a guest star in such television series as "One Day At A Time," "Too Close For Comfort," and "Laverne & Shirley."

Steven Peterman graduated from Harvard University with honors, but while there still found time to explore his interest in acting, starring in Harvard's renowned annual "Hasty Pudding" production during his senior year. He went on to attend three weeks of law school at the University of Wisconsin before "escaping" to New York where, after only seven months, he made his Broadway debut in Murray Schisgal's "An American Millionaire," playing a law professor. He later landed the role of understudy to the lead in Doug Henning's long-running Broadway hit "Magic Show," for which he was forced to learn to be a magician, an experience which still causes nightmares in which he is opening for Tony Orlando in Laughlin, Nevada.

Dontzig and Peterman met as actors while both were performing in George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance" at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, California. They began writing together in 1985, landing their first job a year later as writers for the TBS half-hour comedy "Rocky Road." They went on to write episodes for such series as "Amen," "Sweet Surrender" and "Just in Time" before becoming staff writers for the series "Full House" and later for "A Different World." In 1988 they were hired as executive story editors for the first season of "Murphy Brown." During the ensuing four seasons they went on to serve as producers, supervising producers and, in the show's fifth and sixth seasons, as executive producers. Together they worked on 150 episodes of the series, of which they wrote twenty-four.

• Interview with Gary Dontzig and Steven Peterman

• Transcript of IRC Session