Thomas H. Schulman (born October 20, 1951) is an American screenwriter best known for his semi-autobiographical screenplay Dead Poets Society based on his time at the Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), a college-preparatory day school located in Nashville, Tennessee. Following high school, Schulman earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in philosophy, graduating in 1972 from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Schulman pursued his interest in film at the University of Southern California's Graduate School of Cinema. In 2009, Schulman was elected vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West.