A third-generation Southern Californian, Bill Maxwell is the grandson of acclaimed screenwriter Ernest Pagano and actress Norma Drew.

For several decades, he has worked as a professional writer. He has been a script doctor, a pencil-and-paper game designer, a LARP director, a video game designer, a second-unit producer, an editor, and author.

In addition to writing, Bill has worked for a decade in education, on the board of a charter school, as a grantwriter for a local tribe, a co-founder of a non-profit environmental initiative, a curriculum consultant for a local college, a designer / co-founder of a cutting edge educational program, and the operations coordinator for an AI/AN pipeline to college.