--- name: "Tom Kapinos" canonical: "https://film.one/person/tom-kapinos" fi1m_id: "tom-kapinos" imdb_id: "nm1093513" tmdb_id: 1222585 wikidata_id: "Q541899" roles: ["Writer"] born: "12 June 1969" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "writer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-10-07T14:40:06.201894+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Tom Kapinos ## Identity Tom Kapinos - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tom-kapinos - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** tom-kapinos - **IMDb ID:** nm1093513 - **TMDB ID:** 1222585 - **Wikidata ID:** Q541899 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Kapinos, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q541899, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1093513/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1222585 Writer. Born 12 June 1969 in Levittown, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Writer - **Born:** 12 June 1969, Levittown, New York, USA - **Active:** 2007–2016 - **Also known as:** 톰 카피노스 - **Frequently works with:** [Ildy Modrovich](https://film.one/person/ildy-modrovich.md) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Kapinos, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q541899, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1093513/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1222585 ## Streaming the US now - **Hulu:** [*Californication*](https://film.one/tv/californication.md) (63) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Tom Kapinos > Kapinos writes men who know what is wrong with them and carry on regardless, in Los Angeles, usually with a drink. The dialogue is sharp, the appetite for shock is real, and *Californication* had about a season of story and ran for seven. Tom Kapinos's hero wakes up hungover in Los Angeles, says something clever to the woman he has just let down, and goes out to do it again. *Californication* (2007) opens that way and, seven seasons and 84 half-hours later, closes in roughly the same place. The man is Hank, a blocked novelist played by David Duchovny; the voice is Kapinos's. He writes talk that is quick, rude and well shaped, and for one season he had a good subject: a man who knows exactly what is wrong with him and does it anyway. Kapinos moved from New York to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, read scripts for an agency, sold a screenplay in 1999, and spent four years on *Dawson's Creek* (1999), where he wrote 20 episodes and rose to executive producer; he has called it a boot camp. He has said *Californication* "grew from my personal experience of coming to L.A. to be a screenwriter, getting a job on 'Dawson's Creek' and making a lot of money and then discovering that I was miserable." That is the programme's one real subject, and he wrote 66 of its 84 episodes himself. What works is the sentences, and Duchovny's way with them; he can make a man explaining why he is about to behave badly sound almost reasonable. What does not work is anything the sentences are meant to add up to. Kapinos wants Hank to be a tragedy and a good night out at once, and in seven years he never chooses, so the show cannot let its man change and cannot admit that he will not. We laughed a great deal in the first season, mostly at the speed of the talk, and by the middle seasons we were irritated at being asked to laugh at the same scene in a worse mood, with more nudity to make up the difference. By the seventh season (2014) the frankness that once read as honesty had become the whole point, and a programme that had been sharp about its hero had started to agree with him. After it ended he wrote the pilot for *Lucifer* (2016), the Devil living in Los Angeles and helping the police, which is the Hank idea with horns. The pilot fixed the tone and Tom Ellis's way of playing the part, and Kapinos then left the running of the series to Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich. *White Famous* (2017), which he created and wrote in full, ran ten episodes. We have not reviewed either. Kapinos's advice to other writers is to write what they want, and he has followed it; whether he has ever wanted to write a man who gets better is the open question. Watch the first season of *Californication*, which is one of the better things written about being paid well to be miserable, and treat the other six as optional. ## Biography Tom Kapinos is an American television writer, creator and producer. He began his career in the late 1990s after selling his first screenplay, *The Virgin Mary*, to Fox Studios. This led to work on the WB series *Dawson's Creek* (1998–2003), where he served as a writer and later as an executive producer. Kapinos created the Showtime series *Californication* (2007–2014), on which he was also executive producer and wrote numerous episodes. He later developed and served as executive producer on the Fox series *Lucifer* (2016–2021), which continued on Netflix. He has additional writing credits on series including *Roadies* (2016) and *White Famous* (2017). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Californication* (2007), Fi1m 63, Executive Producer, Creator, Writer, Writers' Production — [page](https://film.one/tv/californication.md) ## Complete filmography (5) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *White Famous* (2017), series, Creator - *Roadies* (2016), series, Writer - *Lucifer* (2016), series, Executive Consultant, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator - *Californication* (2007), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Writers' Production, Creator — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/californication.md) - *Dawson's Creek* (1998), series, Writer, Producer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/tom-kapinos