Christopher Carl Carter (born October 13, 1956) is an American screenwriter, film director and producer, best known as the creator of The X-Files and Millennium.
He was born in Bellflower, California to William and Catherine Carter. In college, he majored in journalism, graduating from California State University Long Beach in 1979. His brother, W. Craig Carter, is a Lord Foundation Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.
Carter began writing for Surfing magazine out of college. For the next five years, he traveled around the world both as a freelance writer and as the magazine's associate editor.