The supernatural romance drama, The Vampire Diaries, is undeniably one of the best shows on The CW. The pilot episode which premiered on the network on September 10, 2009 garnered the largest viewers in the history of the network and has continued to be the most watched show on The CW. The series is followed by a global fanbase who have co-creator and executive producer Julie Plec to thank for the brilliant television adaptation of L. J. Smith novel series. American screenwriter and producer, Julie Plec alongside co-creator Kevin Williamson developed The Vampire Diaries for television and has achieved international recognition for her work. Born on May 26, 1972, Plec also created a spin-off series, The Originals, after the huge success of The Vampire Diaries.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Plec completed her bachelor studies in 1994. She originally took up film as her college major but halfway down the program she decided against it and chose to graduate as an interdepartmental major. Although the 42 years old television producer is extremely popular among the fans of her shows, there is very less information on her life apart from her professional work. Much of her personal details are unknown to fans.
In the late 1990s, Plec co-produced the second Scream movie, Scream 2 and the drama series Wasteland which was created by her The Vampire Diaries collaborator Kevin Williamson. The series was cancelled after one season. In 1999, she also produced the black comedy drama Teaching Mrs. Tingle which once again reunited her with director Kevin Williamson. A year later she produced Greg Berlanti’s The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy and Scream 3. In 2005, she became the co-producer of Wes Craven’s horror comedy Cursed. She wrote and produced the science fiction series Kyle XY for ABC in 2006. She became the supervising producer for the 2007-08 season. After the end of Kyle XY in 2009, she began working on her career defining work on The Vampire Diaries. She approached longtime collaborator Kevin Williamson with the idea of a television adaptation of The Vampire Diaries written by L.J. Smith. In February 2009, The CW ordered the pilot episode for the series and in May, the first season was green lit by the network. The series stars Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, a small town girl who falls for the new guy in town, Stefan Salvatore, portrayed by Paul Wesley, who she realizes is a century old vampire. The story builds up as Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Somerhalder, enters the picture and woos Elena. The series was awarded generously during the 2010 Teen Choice Awards and won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama in 2010. Plec made her directorial debut on the show with an episode of the fifth season of The Vampire Diaries. The series has progressively improved its viewer ratings and its worldwide success led Plec to develop a spin off series with some of the characters on the series. The Originals premiered in 2013 and starred The Vampire Diaries alumni Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies, Pheobe Tonkin and Claire Holt along with other new characters.
In 2013, Plec developed the science fiction series The Tomorrow People with Phil Klemmer and Greg Berlanti. She is also the executive producer of the series. The Tomorrow People was cancelled in 2014 after The CW didn’t pick it up for a second season.
Both of Plec’s works, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, have played major roles in sculpting her career in television. Her works have received huge commercial success and critical acclaim around the world and have entertained millions of fans for several years. She has a large presence on social media, especially on Twitter where as of May 2015, she has garnered 613,000 followers.