Vince Gilligan to Receive WGAW’s 2025 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement
Los Angeles – Multiple Primetime Emmy- and Writers Guild Award-winning film and television writer, director, and producer Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) has been named the recipient of the WGAW Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement. The award is presented to a Guild member who has “advanced the literature of television and made outstanding contributions to the profession of the television writer.” Gilligan will be honored at the WGAW’s 2025 Writers Guild Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 15 at the Beverly Hilton.
“‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’” said Gilligan. “Cribbing from a better writer is about all I can think to do right now, preoccupied as we all are by what has happened to beautiful Southern California. But this award is a true honor, and I appreciate it deeply.”
Gilligan was born in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Farmville and Chesterfield County. While attending NYU, Gilligan won the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award in 1989 for his screenplay Home Fries, which was later made into a movie starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. This award led to Gilligan landing an agent and entering the industry. He wrote 1993’s Wilder Napalm before joining season two of The X-Files in 1995. In addition to writing nearly 30 episodes, Gilligan would go on to become an Executive Producer of The X-Files and was one of the Creators and Executive Producers of the spin-off series The Lone Gunmen.
In 2008, Gilligan created Breaking Bad, widely considered to be among the greatest television shows of all time. It was one of the most watched cable series in history during its run and it is currently the highest rated show on IMDb.
Gilligan went on to co-create the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul in 2015 with Peter Gould. Together, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were named as “TV Programs of the Year” ten times by the American Film Institute and won four Peabody Awards, sixteen Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Writers Guild Awards. In 2019 Gilligan wrote and directed the film El Camino, a coda to the Breaking Bad finale from 2013.
Named after one of the most influential writers in entertainment history, the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement is the WGAW’s highest award for television writing. Past Television Laurel Award recipients include Linda Bloodworth Thomason, Yvette Lee Bowser, Merrill Markoe, Jenji Kohan, Diane English, Aaron Sorkin, Steven Bochco, Susan Harris, Stephen J. Cannell, Shonda Rhimes, David Chase, Marta Kauffman & David Crane, Larry David, Garry Marshall, and Alison Cross.
For press photos of 2025 TV Laurel Award honoree Vince Gilligan, click here.
To register for press credentials for the 2025 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles-based show, please click here.
The 2025 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles ceremony will be livestreamed! Tune in at 4:30 PT at our WGA Awards homepage.
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, streaming, news (broadcast and digital), radio/audio, and promotional categories. The 2025 Writers Guild Awards (77th Annual) will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2025. For more information about the 2025 Writers Guild Awards, please visit awards.wga.org or wgaeast.org/awards.
Please direct Los Angeles-based media inquiries regarding the 2025 Writers Guild Awards to Bob Hopkinson in the WGAW Communications Department at (310) 801-8563 or email: Bob Hopkinson.
Please direct New York-based media inquiries regarding the 2025 Writers Guild Awards to Jason Gordon in the WGAE Communications Department at (212) 767-7809 or email: Jason Gordon.
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America West, visit www.wga.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America East, visit www.wgaeast.org.