William MacDonald is an American film and television producer and writer.

MacDonald has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Fordham University School of Law in New York.^[1][2]

MacDonald worked in international trade and business affairs. Eventually he rose to run Hollywood producer Robert Evans' production company at Paramount Pictures.

MacDonald has a producer, co-producer or executive producer credit on Sliver, Jade, An Occasional Hell, Rough Riders, Molly and One Man's Hero. He co-wrote one episode for the TNT series, Witchblade, which ran from 2001–2002.

He was also a co-creator of the HBO original series Rome (in association of the BBC) along with John Milius and Bruno Heller.^[3][4] MacDonald served as an executive producer and writer on the series. The episode Caesarion (2005) was written by MacDonald.

MacDonald also wrote a drama series about the history of New Orleans called Storyville that had begun filming a pilot by January 2016.^[5]

MacDonald also wrote an unproduced screenplay based on Iris Chang's bestselling novel The Rape of Nanking.^[6]

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.