Melissa Mathison was an American television and film screenwriter. She passed away in November, 2015. She was best know as the writer of the hit film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Some of her other works as a writer were in the films The Black Stallion (1979), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) and The BFG (2016).