Lew Hunter is an American screenwriter, author and educator and is chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at the UCLA Department of Film and Television.

Over half of the Oscar winning scripts over the past twenty years have been written by students of Hunter. His former students and advocates include such people as Adrienne Parks, Allison Anders, David Koepp, Mike Werb, Sacha Gervasi, Dan Pyne, David Titcher, Diane Saltzberg, Michael Colleary, Don Mancini, Kathy Stumpe, Darren Star, Alexander Payne and Tom Shadyac. Other students include Chuck Loch, Paige Macdonald, Robert Wolfe, Joel Schumacher, Megan Steinbeck, Robert Roy Poole, Lon Diamond, Laurie Hutlzer, Pamela Gray, William Missouri Downs, Robin Russin, Brad Silberling, Greg Widen, and many others. Steven Spielberg has called Hunter "the best screenwriting teacher going".