John Bowman was an American screenwriter.

Bowman co-created the Martin Lawrence sitcom Martin, served as the head writer on the ground-breaking In Living Color, and worked on other shows including Saturday Night Live, Murphy Brown and The Hughleys.

He joined Saturday Night Live in 1988 and shared the Emmy for outstanding writing in a variety or music program with Mike Myers, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk and Phil Hartman.

In 1990, Bowman became one of the first white writers on In Living Color, the Fox sketch comedy series created by Keenen Ivory Wayans, and was promoted to head writer within a year.

Later in the 1990s, Bowman also wrote for It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Murphy Brown — he also served as an executive producer for the last four seasons of the CBS series' original run — and The Hughleys.

He then co-created two more sketch comedy shows with Matt Wickline: Fox's Cedric the Entertainer Presents and TBS's Frank TV, starring Frank Caliendo.

As chairman of the negotiating committee for the WGA during the 2007-08 writers strike, Bowman helped gain a settlement that for the first time shared producers' internet streaming revenue with film and television writers.

Bowman later taught script form and sketch comedy writing as a member of the adjunct faculty at USC's School of Cinematic Arts.

Bowman died December 28, 2021 in Santa Monica, California. He was 64.