Now meet Pete Nowalk (right), the out creator of the series, who has worked under uber-TV-producer Shonda Rhimes on both Scandal and Grey's Anatomy (so he knows a thing or two about great characters and powerful storytelling).

How to Get Away with Murder stars Academy Award-nominee and Tony-winner Viola Davis as law professor Annalise Keating.  She drives her students hard in the classroom but a handful of them also end up working for her and unexpectedly become embroiled in a murder plot that is set up in the premiere episode. One of those students is Walsh, played by Jack Falahee.

We sat down with Nowalk recently to talk about creating the show, including a gay character in the mix and why it was important that the character have a romantic storyline early in the series as opposed to later.

Tell us about the genesis of How to Get Away with Murder.

Pete Nowalk: I knew I wanted to pitch a show this year and I had talked to Betsy [Beers, Executive Producer] last year about certain ideas. One of them was about a group of young first year associates that work for a criminal defense attorney that get involved in a murder. That was always just the very clear, fine, loud concept and something that I found appealing. And it wasn’t until this year that I had a moment and I was like ‘oh, what if they’re in law school?’ A university setting felt really fun to me. Making [Davis’s character] a law professor felt really awesome. Teaching the audience also that these students can’t go into court and argue made it feel fresher to me. She has to use them as little private investigators.

Because you did come from that world, what’s the thing you probably learned the most from working on Scandal and Grey’s?

I think the episodes are always character-driven and emotionally-driven and I think we have procedural elements, obviously. But that’s always the background, so the character is driving that. I always watch shows more like that. I think everyone likes different things, but for me if I’m not interested in the character then the plot is just like white noise.

Everything in Shondaland is character-based and it’s a combination that can be funny, it can be dramatic, and a week later, suspenseful. I also just learned a lot working with Shonda, who’s just such a very decisive person. She really sticks to her guns in terms of what she wants to happen in the story even if there are twelve people telling her they don’t like it. And I think that makes her a dream to work for because you’re like ‘well, she knows what she wants!’

So, we start the series at one dramatic point and then go back in time a bit. When will we catch up to what we see happening at the beginning?

PN: It will be before the end of the first season. In all the subsequent episodes we will continue to see flash forwards of that night and we will see the ends of scenes that we didn’t see before. We’ll return to the same moments, we’ll see new moments and we’ll learn things about the characters over that night. So we’re putting together a puzzle [and] it’s like all the different pieces…so in my ideal world you could watch all those flash forwards and by the end [have] one long sequence and understand what happened that night.

Aja Naomi King, Jack Falahee and Karla Souza in the pilot episode. (ABC)

How did you go about casting the character of Connor, who we find out pretty quickly is gay? Was it difficult?

PN: It was difficult because there are a lot of different moving parts with the character. One, I wanted him to be very smart, the smartest person in the room. I wanted him to be confident. I wanted him to be a little bit sly. I wanted him to be unapologetic. Also, good looking and just confident in his own person. It’s a little wish fulfillment gay character for me and also someone younger. I just wanted to show something I wish I had seen growing up and that he’s messed up-- but he’s also complicated and awesome. I wanted him to be awesomely gay. [laughs]

Why was it important for you to have a gay element to the show?

PN: I didn’t really think about it as important. I’m gay, so I wanted to write about things that I don’t see on TV a lot, I guess. I also just wanted the five students to feel so different and these characters just were instinctive to me.

Will we see Connor build any relationships or is he not a relationship kind of guy?

PN: I will say yes to both. But it was important to me that in the first season we give him a romantic arc with someone, so you’ll see that starting in the second episode. But I think a lot of gay characters in the past sometimes didn’t have a romantic storyline right away and that was important to me. And it feels right for his character where we’re leading him.

Falahee at the TCA Summer Press Tour in July (ABC)

I did notice in the pilot the only one who really has sex is Connor…

PN: [smiles] And that was actually really fun for me when I kind of realized that, because [another character’s] scene is interrupted and I was like ‘oh, the only real sex scene is a gay sex scene’ and I was like, ‘awesome.’ It wasn’t intentional or obviously anything, but ABC was down with it and I never got a note about it.

So many shows before this one had really broken down a lot of barriers in terms of gay characters and content. Is there any line you really can’t cross?

PN: Well, it depends on who the viewer is. I think someone who maybe hasn’t seen a gay sex scene on network TV like that…it just feels real to me. And I think some people won’t want to watch it because of that but then they shouldn’t watch it. It’s not the show for them.

Would you say this world exists in the same world as Scandal?

PN: I do not think they exist in the same world. I could be wrong about that in five years, but I do not anticipate any same universe-ness. I’ve never talked to Shonda about it. I mean, I will not put words in her mouth, but I can’t imagine she would think they would cross over. It’s like Scandal and Grey’s don’t cross over.

Is there something you hope the audience takes from the show outside of just entertainment? Is there an overarching message?

PN: The only message I’ll say is that people are complicated and surprising, and I think they're are themes I’m interested in. I’m interested in race and class, especially at a really elite university and I think it’s built into our storyline. I think Annalise is really interesting for that. Why do certain people have a higher conviction rate than other types of people? I think those are all storylines we want to tell in a way that doesn’t feel like medicine. And the justice system is much more complicated and unfair than you wish it would be.

How to Get Away with Murder premieres September 25th at 10pm right after Scandal.