Peter Hawley

About

Peter Hawley is an award-winning writer and director of feature films, television commercials and documentaries. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University he won a national student Emmy Award for his music video Next to You, and several awards and festival appearances for his short film The Law of Inertia. The success of these projects gave him the opportunity to write and direct the feature film Victimless Crimes.

From narrative films Hawley transitioned into directing television commercials, specializing in storytelling. As a commercial director for more than 15 years, his advertising credits include national spots for Windex, Glade, Off-Skintastic, and Weber Grills. He also created and wrote the "Denny Dent" television campaign for classic rock radio stations in the United States and Canada, and a commercial spoof of the popular television show "E.R." for ABC7 in Chicago.

Since 1996 he has been a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, Academic Dean and a founding faculty member of Tribeca Flashpoint College, and Dean of Columbia College Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA. He started teaching at Loyola in the Fall of 2017.

Since May 1, 2019 he has been the Director of the Illinois Film Office.

Degrees

B.S. Northwestern University

M.A. University of Chicago

Courses Taught

Public Speaking