Jeff Vlaming, the very hirable TV writer, producer and story editor who worked on 41 shows — including The X-Files, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Hannibal and The 100 — across three decades, has died. He was 63.
A specialist in science fiction, Vlaming died Jan. 30 at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena after he was diagnosed with cancer in early 2021, his brother, Jonathan Vlaming, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Vlaming most recently served as a writer and executive producer for the final three seasons (2018-20) of The CW’s The 100 and as an exec producer and writer on NBC’s Debris in 2021.
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In 2009-10, he was a writer and exec producer on Fox’s Fringe in 2009-10; he and showrunner J.H. Wyman penned what many fans consider the series’ preeminent episode, “White Tulip.”
The Minnesota native also was a supervising producer and writer on The CW’s Reaper from 2007-09 and a co-exec producer and writer on two other shows, MTV’s rebooted Teen Wolf in 2011 and Robert Kirkman’s Outcast at Cinemax in 2016-17.
During a 2021 interview for the TV Writer podcast, he said he “adored” writing.
Raised in Edina, Minnesota, Jeffrey Laird Vlaming earned a bachelor’s degree in television production from the University of Minnesota. Encouraged to write scripts by William H. Macy after taking a theater class taught by the actor, he left his job as an advertising art director to come to Los Angeles.
After a year writing spec scripts full-time, he sold a script to Northern Exposure in 1992, then joined the writing staff of the CBS drama for its fourth season the next year.
Vlaming wrote episodes of the USA sitcom Weird Science and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. before becoming a staff writer on Fox’s The X-Files for its third season (1995-96) and working on the final season (1996-97) of ABC’s Lois & Clark.
He spent two seasons as a co-exec producer on NBC’s Hannibal in 2014-15.
His credits included Rescue 77, Murder in Small Town X, NCIS, Touching Evil, Ronald D. Moore’s rebooted Battlestar Galactica, Xena: Warrior Princess and Numbers. On the film side, he sold multiple projects and enjoyed working closely with director Michael Apted.
Vlaming also played in a punk band, taught a night class in TV drama writing at USC and did lots of wonderful sketches on his Twitter account.
In October, he finished work on the graphic novel Twelve O’Clock Somewhere, which he wrote and illustrated. The 112-page work “is a synthesis of disparate genres — noir, detective fiction, horror — set in the milieu of 1930s Los Angeles, one that parallels the discord we find all around us today,” his brother said.
Survivors also include his wife, Kathy; their sons Trevor and Laird; Laird’s wife, Anna; sister-in-law Diane; and four nieces and nephews.
Vlaming was said to have been grateful to have been able to attend Laird’s wedding in Minnesota a year ago.
