Scott Spiegel

Scott Spiegel (December 10, 1957 – August 20, 2025) was an accomplished American screenwriter, film director, producer, and actor, best recognized for his collaboration with friend Sam Raimi on the screenplay for the cult classic Evil Dead II. Their friendship began in childhood, as they attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan. Spiegel also played the character Scotty in Raimi’s short film Within the Woods, which laid the groundwork for The Evil Dead.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Spiegel found himself in a vibrant creative environment, sharing a house with notable figures like directors Raimi and Joel Coen, producer Ethan Coen, and actresses Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, and Kathy Bates. His close ties to the film community also included a shared living arrangement with film editor Bob Murawski, known for his work on Spider-Man. In the early 1990s, he played a pivotal role in connecting filmmaker Quentin Tarantino with producer Lawrence Bender, facilitating the production of Tarantino's debut film, Reservoir Dogs.

Spiegel grew up in what was then a rural area of Birmingham, Michigan, where he attended Walnut Lake Elementary and West Maple Jr. High School, forging friendships with future collaborators Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. His experiences working at a local grocery store would later inspire iconic scenes in his films. In 1999, he directed Texas Blood Money, a direct-to-video sequel to From Dusk Till Dawn, and co-founded the production company Raw Nerve with Eli Roth and Boaz Yakin, which produced the horror film Hostel (2005).