"[4] Nowalk attended Brown University, where he graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in American Civilization.
[7] In the same year, Nowalk was hired as a writer for the Shonda Rhimes medical drama series Private Practice.
After a few months, Nowalk began writing for Rhimes' Grey's Anatomy as recurring writer and later executive story editor and supervising producer.
Nowalk wrote "Everything's Coming Up Mellie", the seventh episode of the third season of Scandal in 2013.
[5][9][10][11] The series pilot on September 25, 2014, set a record for DVR playback viewers with 6 million, surpassing the January 27, 2014, record of 5.6 million set by the pilot of The Blacklist.