Don Payne

Biography:

William Donald Payne, known professionally as Don Payne, was born on May 5, 1964, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He graduated from New Hanover High School in 1982, where he served as class president, before studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later transferred to UCLA, where he earned both his undergraduate degree and a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting, a program he would later return to teach.

Payne began his career in television comedy, writing with his then-partner John Frink, whom he met at UCLA. Initially aspiring to write films, Payne agreed with Frink to pursue whichever medium offered them their first break. This led to writing jobs on short-lived sitcoms such as Hope and Gloria (1995–96), Men Behaving Badly (1997), and The Brian Benben Show (1998), which Payne later dismissed as failures.

In 1998, Payne and Frink joined the writing staff of The Simpsons. Their first produced episode, “Treehouse of Horror XI,” aired in 2000, followed by “Insane Clown Poppy.” Payne recalled that they were recommended to showrunner Mike Scully by fellow writer Jace Richdale after a failed sitcom project. The partnership eventually ended amicably, but both continued to work on the series. Over his tenure, Payne wrote or co-wrote 16 episodes, produced more than 100, and earned four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program. He also won the Writers Guild of America’s Paul Selvin Award for the 2005 episode “Fraudcast News.” His final two episodes, “White Christmas Blues” and “Labor Pains,” aired after his death.

Alongside his work on The Simpsons, Payne pursued his goal of writing feature films. His first was My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), followed by co-writing credits on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Thor (2011), and Thor: The Dark World (2013). He was also attached to projects such as Maximum Ride. Payne described his early passion for movies and comic books as a driving force behind his career.

Payne and his wife, Julie, had three children—two sons and a daughter. He also had a brother, John, and a sister, Suzanne.

On March 26, 2013, Payne died at the age of 48 at his Los Angeles home from heart failure following a long battle with bone cancer. Remembered warmly by his colleagues, The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean praised him as “a wonderful writer and an even more wonderful man.” Thor: The Dark World and his final Simpsons episode, “White Christmas Blues,” were both dedicated to his memory.