Season 9 Ep. 04 - Rich Wilkes (Screenwriter/Director/Actor/Musician)

About this episode

Rich Wilkes discusses his career in screenwriting and the nostalgia of the 1990s film industry.

Born and raised in Princeton, New Jersery, Wilkes relocated to the West Coast with his family, where he would go on to earn a BA at UC Santa Cruz, before eventually deciding to study screenwriting at the American Film Institute (AFI). Having worked as a screnwriter on such cult classics as 1994's "Airheads" (Adam Sandler, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley, and Michael Richards) and "The Stoned Age" (Michael Kopelow, Bradford Tatum, and Clifton Collins Jr.), which was released this past Monday as an exclusive cult collectible Blu-Ray in celebration of 420, Wilkes officially made his semi-autobiographical coming of age tale "Glory Daze", starring a pre-Kevin Smith Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell, and French Stewart, and has since paved way as a legend in an intense industry that is changing quicker than you, and I could ever fathom. While combining the existential elements of youth, relationships, career, and the brave balance of life, Wilkes may be your new favorite obsession when it comes to cult comedies, and subliminal stoner stories. On this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we sit down with the veteran screenwriter/director to discuss the old glory daze of…

People in this episode

Guest: Rich Wilkes

Topics covered

• screenwriting
• nostalgia
• cult comedies
• youth
• AI impact
• film industry

Keywords

• Rich Wilkes
• screenwriter
• cult classics
• nostalgia
• AI
• youth
• film industry
• Glory Daze

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UC Santa Cruz, American Film Institute

Books & works: Airheads, The Stoned Age, Glory Daze

Places: Princeton, New Jersey, West Coast

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• Season 9 Ep. 02 - Chik White · March 27, 2026 · 1h 8m
• Season 9 Ep. 01 (Season Premiere) - Frank Hurricane · March 7, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Season 8 Ep. 20 (Season Finale) - Chris Ballew (The Presidents Of The United States Of America) · February 20, 2026 · 60 min
• Season 8 Ep. #19 - Tim Rutili (Califone) · February 4, 2026 · 1h 9m
• Season 8 Ep. #18 - Joe Roberts (LSD Worldpeace) · January 16, 2026 · 1h 4m