
Deepwater Elementary’s students and staff recently hosted a visit from author and screenwriter Michael Anthony Steele, who shared stories about his experiences in the film and television industry.
Steele discussed the importance of writing in the entertainment world. “You can’t have a TV show, a movie, a cartoon, a comic book, or even a video game without a writer writing the script,” he said. “All those things begin with words on paper. They all begin with scripts.”
He told the students that the four of the most important words they could learn are, “I can do that.” He described working in the prop department on the Wishbone television series and coming to the realization that it was someone’s job to write the script for each episode of the show. “Those are very powerful words,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘Well, I can do that.’ I can write a script like that, and I did. I worked very hard.”
Steele has authored dozens of movie and television adaptations and chapter books featuring popular characters such as the Hardy Boys, Scooby Doo, Batman, Garfield, the Penguins of Madagascar, Spiderman, LEGO, and many more. He has also written for television shows and home video releases such as the popular Barney shows, which feature a friendly, oversized purple dinosaur.