Few television shows have had the kind of cultural impact as HBO’s dark comedy, “The White Lotus.” While the 1st season was set in the titular White Lotus luxury resort in Hawaii, the next two seasons demonstrated the series to be an anthology, with a different locale and a whole new cast in each season. While the first two instalments resurrected the career of comedic star Jennifer Coolidge, sending it into the stratosphere, the arrival of the 3rd season in early 2025 proved the series’ success was no fluke. With a cast including rising star Walton Goggins, nepo baby-turned-actor Patrick Schwarzenegger, one-time “queen of the indies” Parker Posey, and British actor Aimee Lee Wood, the third instalment of “The White Lotus” continued to capture the zeitgeist.
Behind all that talent is the series’ creator, Mike White. An occasional actor, White’s primary gig has always been as a screenwriter. In addition to “The White Lotus,” White has written a surprisingly diverse array of film and television projects, although it’s always been clear that dark comedy is his forte. So how much do fans of the show know about the guy who created it? Read further to explore the untold truth of “The White Lotus” creator Mike White.
One of Mike White’s first jobs was writing for Dawson’s Creek
Mike White broke into Hollywood as a writer, co-writing the script for the 1998 big-screen comedy “Dead Man on Campus.” His entry into the television milieu was writing for the beloved teen drama, “Dawson’s Creek,” in the late 1990s. “My first job was with ‘Dawson’s Creek’ where everybody looked good and they spoke better than you. It was kind of a wish fulfillment, fantasy-type show,” he said in an interview with Vulture. While White enjoyed the prestige of working on a hit show, he grew bored trying to maintain the will-they-or-won’t-they romance elements between the series’ lead characters. “I quickly couldn’t keep interested,” he told The New Yorker. “I always, whether intentionally or not, started burning down the house.”
He found much more fulfillment with his next TV writing gig, “Freaks and Geeks,” a short-lived series that launched the careers of its cast; a staggering array of future stars such as Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Martin Starr, Jason Segel, and Busy Philipps. While the show went on to become a cult favorite, the show struggled to draw viewers. For White, writing for the show offered a new sense of purpose, and allowed him to push the envelope. “With ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ I realized you can actually have a show that looks like your own sensibility with some of the absurdities of what your life actually is,” he told Vulture.
Mike White’s first major acting role was in a movie he wrote
A screenplay that Mike White had written found its way into the hands of his college friend, director Miguel Arteta. Arteta decided to make the film, a dark comedy about a guy named Buck becoming obsessed with his childhood best friend, Charlie, when they reunite at a funeral as adults. Arteta felt that White should play childlike stalker Buck, despite the writer’s lack of acting experience. “With ‘Chuck and Buck,’ the director really wanted me to do it,” White said when interviewed for The Believer. That role subsequently led White to enjoy a side hustle as an actor, particularly in projects that he’d written. “I don’t come at it as an actor who is writing his way into his movies,” he said of his acting career. “I’m really coming as a writer who ended up acting in certain things — kind of like I backed into it a little bit.”
He adamantly believes that appearing onscreen has enhanced his skills at as a writer, giving him an understanding of what actors go through when reciting his dialogue in front of a camera. “It’s only when you actually start putting yourself out there that you appreciate the anxiety that comes with having to try to sell a line, or with trying to own a character,” he explained.
His father was a evangelist minister — until coming out as gay
Mike White grew up in a household where religion was at the center of everything. “I was a minister’s kid,” White told The Guardian of his father, an evangelical Christian minister who associated with the likes of televangelists Billy Graham and Jerry Fallwell. Despite being in the midst of a highly devout community, White never really embraced religion. “I never bought in; I was kind of skeptical. It made me very alienated,” he recalled.
White was just 11 years old when he found out his father was gay, a revelation that sent shockwaves through their family — and made the youngster even more dubious about fundamentalist Christianity. “I grew up in this religion where nobody was honest about who they were and what was really going on,” he explained. At such a young age, watching his father struggle with his sexuality proved traumatic. “It was probably the worst time in my life,” White recalled in an interview on “The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan” podcast. “It was not on his agenda to be gay. It was a very long, drawn-out process.”
For White, that experience has colored his life in a very profound way that is constantly reflected in his film and TV work. “This experience [of discovering his father’s sexuality] is the key to everything I write,” he told The Washington Post. “It was traumatic but not negative. It opened the door to a more dimensional way of experiencing life. I learned that everyone has a secret truth, that there’s more than meets the eye.”
He created a critically acclaimed TV series that nobody watched
The critical acclaim for “Chuck and Buck” landed Mike White a TV deal, which resulted in “Pasadena,” a prime-time soap airing on Fox. The show earned raves from critics, but had the misfortune of premiering weeks after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001. The dark tone of the show was at odds with the zeitgeist, and ratings were rough; “Pasadena” was pulled off the air after just four episodes.
White tried again a few years later with the 2004 Fox sitcom “Cracking Up” about a seemingly perfect family who, behind the scenes, is wildly eccentric. That show was likewise at the mercy the whims of network executives and was also canceled after just a handful of episodes aired.
Speaking with Interview, White took a dim view of his track record creating shows for network television. “Most of the shows I’ve worked on have aired three times and are in the dustbin of history,” he said. “I did two shows for Fox, and they’re notoriously fickle and those shows didn’t go anywhere.”
Mike White wrote the screenplay for School of Rock with Jack Black in mind
Mike White lived next door to comedic actor Jack Black — which isn’t actually his real name — for a few years in the early 1990s. White got to know him even better when the latter appeared in “Orange County,” which White wrote. When White subsequently came up with the idea for “School of Rock,” he developed the screenplay specifically for Black. “I just kept thinking there’s so many different colors to his comedy than people have seen, at least in terms of the movies he’s headlined,” White recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I just had this image in my head of him jamming with a bunch of little kids … I couldn’t shake the idea. So I just wrote it.” He also created a role for himself: Ned Schneebly, mild-mannered sidekick to Black’s Dewey Finn.
The result was a critical and commercial smash that took Black’s career to the next level while shifting White from the quirky indie lane into the heart of the mainstream. Meanwhile, the two enjoyed working together so much that White wrote another movie for Black, the wrestling comedy “Nacho Libre.”
In a 2024 interview with JOE, Black confirmed he’d love to return for a “School of Rock” sequel — but only if White was involved. “You know Mike White wrote the first one and he’s a genius,” Black declared. “We’d have to have Mike White back in the saddle, but he’s real busy right now with ‘White Lotus,’ the best show on TV.”
He teamed up with his father for two seasons of The Amazing Race
Mike White has long professed his love of reality TV, and in 2009, he took it to the next level when he enlisted his father to join him to compete in “The Amazing Race,” in which two-person teams take on various challenges while criss-crossing the globe. Speaking with The New Yorker in 2021, White recalled encountering “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston – who starred in a film he’d written, “The Good Girl” — at a party, where he excitedly shared the news. “I was, like, ‘I’m going on ‘Amazing Race’ with my dad!’ I could see Jennifer Aniston’s eyes being, like, Why the f***?”
White has been enmeshed in Hollywood long enough to realize that appearing in a reality show isn’t on the bucket list of A-list stars — even though it’s always been a dream of his. “That’s not anything that anyone aspires to, to be a reality contestant,” he mused. “I actually just auditioned with my boyfriend to be on ‘House Hunters International.'”
The Whites finished in sixth place, but returned a couple years later to compete once again in the 2011 “Unfinished Business” season. The father-son duo fared even worse their second time out, finishing in 10th place. “The second time was not a charm. It proved to be harder,” the elder White admitted to People.
He competed on Survivor — and almost won
As it turned out, “The Amazing Race” was merely a warmup act for Mike White to achieve an even deeper long-held dream: to compete on his favorite show, “Survivor.” In 2018, White was among the contestants chosen to outwit, outplay, and outlast in the venerable reality competition. As he told The New Yorker, there was nothing ironic about his desire to play the game.
“‘Survivor’ is the only show I really devotedly watch, even though I get frustrated with it,” he said, explaining that reality TV offers him an opportunity to observe humanity up close. “Part of my job and my way of life is studying people and analyzing motivation and character,” he added. “I still feel like, even on the most contrived reality show, the people are human and they’re more interesting than some of the most well-scripted drama.”
“Survivor” also provided White with some reality-TV redemption, performing far better than he did on “The Amazing Race” by making it all the way to the finale. Sadly, victory was not in the cards, but he could at least hold his head high after finishing in the runner-up position. “I feel like I’m happy with my results,” he told Entertainment Weekly of his second-place finish. “I mean, I did want to win and I played to win … I think it all worked out for the best.”
The White Lotus wasn’t his first series for HBO
While “The White Lotus” has been the show most associated with Mike White ever since its premiere, it wasn’t the first time he created a critically-acclaimed, award-winning show for HBO. Previously, he produced “Enlightened,” which debuted in 2011. A dark dramedy, the series followed a woman (played by Laura Dern) who’s spiritual awakening unleashed chaos in her personal life and on the job. White once again created a part for himself, co-starring with Dern as a co-worker.
As White told Interview, the series almost never came to be due to his reticence about returning to TV after his terrible past experiences. “I did this movie with Laura Dern, and she had a holding deal with HBO, and she ended up moving a block away from me, and I kept running into her,” White recalled. “And she was like, ‘I’m trying to do this show with HBO, do you have any suggestions for writers?’ And after like, the fourth time, I thought, ‘It would be fun to party with HBO and Laura. Maybe I could do it.'”
The show earned acclaim from critics (and two Emmy nominations), while Dern won a Golden Globe for her performance — but the show was far from a hit. “It irritates me,” White said of the show’s weak viewership when interviewed for Vulture, theorizing that a series centered on a female protagonist would always be a tough sell with American viewers. “Women are interested in men and women, and men aren’t interested in the woman’s story,” he observed. “They just aren’t.” He wasn’t wrong; “Enlightened” was canceled after its 2nd season.
Mike White has directed a few movies — and written a bunch that most people probably don’t realize came from him
After his success as a writer, actor, and producer, Mike White put on another hat when he directed one of his screenplays for the first time. That was 2007’s “Year of the Dog,” a critically acclaimed indie starring ’90s “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon, with whom he’d worked on his failed Fox sitcom, “Cracking Up.” White then went on to direct several episodes of “Enlightened,” the pilot for an HBO drag-queen comedy called “Mamma Dallas,” and the 2017 feature, “Brad’s Status,” starring Ben Stiller. He’s also directed numerous episodes of “The White Lotus.”
In addition to all of that, White has maintained his presence as a sought-after Hollywood screenwriter. Among the many scripts to bear his name are “Beatriz at Dinner,” “Pitch Perfect 3,” and “The One and Only Ivan.”
In a sit-down with “Off Camera with Sam Jones,” White explained that writing a good script was only part of the battle; a successful screenwriter must also be able to sell his material. “It’s like any version of salesmanship,” White said. “You have to have a vision, that people will say, not only do I think this is valuable and worthy, but I’m going to give you $10 million of our money to go do it.”
He’s written some hit animated movies
Among the many surprising movies that Mike White has written are some animated family films — a pretty significant departure from the dark, misanthropic tone of “The White Lotus.” He first got into writing for animation with 2017’s “The Emoji Movie,” which he co-wrote, or at least that’s what the credits say. White, however, told The Skinny that he barely worked on the film at all. “I worked on ‘The Emoji Movie’ for just three weeks, and I’m not exactly sure how I got credit on it,” he said. “It’s obviously not Mike White’s ‘Emoji Movie’ — and it’s not even the director’s Emoji Movie, to be honest — it’s Sony’s ‘Emoji Movie.'”
Despite that experience, he ventured into animation again when he co-wrote 2023’s “Migration” and again with “Despicable Me 4.” For the latter, he played a far more active role than he had in “The Emoji Movie.” “Mike did several drafts, and that becomes the foundation of the movie, with the villain and the family dynamic,” the film’s director, Chris Renaud, said when interviewed for The Hollywood Reporter, explaining that Ken Daurio — who wrote for the first three films — took over for the subsequent drafts.
His dream is to produce a season of Survivor
Interestingly, Mike White’s fandom of “Survivor” extends beyond watching the show and competing on it. As he revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he would love to drop in as a guest producer for a season. “If Cosmo will let Lena Dunham guest edit an issue, why can’t I guest curate a season of ‘Survivor?!'” he asked.
So what would a Mike White season of “Survivor” look like? According to the man himself, viewers and contestants should buckle up for a super-sized season jam-packed with clever twists — which would probably create a season of reality TV that goes a bit too far. “I would have home visits with all the players before they leave so we can really get to know them, less advantages, challenges that highlight survival skills and willpower (less puzzles and agility), a 50-day season, a seven-person jury, a final two, and I’d make them all as deranged with hunger and fatigue as possible. (They’ll be just fine… there are cameras there, remember?)” he revealed.
He snuck some Survivor castmates to The White Lotus in cameos
Fans of “Survivor” who also watch “The White Lotus” have no doubt been tickled by the presence of several ” Survivor” contestants in cameo roles throughout the Mike White-created series. As White told Entertainment Weekly, fellow “Survivor” castaway Alec Merlino had a small role in the 1st season of “The White Lotus,” playing a bartender. “When people see him mixing cocktails and winking at the guests, they’ll never believe he hasn’t taken a single acting class,” White gushed.
In the 2nd season, White enlisted Angelina Keeley and Kara Kay, playing wealthy hotel guests soaking up some sun on the Sicily coast. White continued the tradition in the series’ 3rd season, with “Survivor” contestants Carl Boudreaux and Natalie Cole enjoying a meal in the hotel restaurant in Thailand.
As Cole told Entertainment Weekly, she was pleasantly surprised to be approached by White after their somewhat contentious relationship on the reality show. “The fact that he could look beyond the way he felt about me in Fiji and ask me to come do a part speaks volumes about him as a person,” said Cole. “Initially, he thought he was never going to speak to me again.”
