Biography
Ed Horwitz began his career as a personal assistant to Robert Altman, working at Altman's Lion's Gate Films for two years on eight feature films. Between 1980 and 1987, Ed held various roles at The Landsburg Company, including Production Manager and Associate Producer on feature films, telefilms, TV series, documentaries, and specials. His credits include five seasons of That's Incredible! (1980), one season of ABC's People Do the Craziest Things (1984), the feature film Jaws 3-D (1983), 130 episodes of the syndicated drama True Confessions (1985), several documentaries, and the Disney telefilm The Parent Trap II (1986).
Before joining Cosgrove/Meurer, Ed was nominated for an Emmy Award as Supervising Producer on Group W's The Wil Shriner Show and was Co-Producer of The Rich Hall Show and The New Homeowner's Guide to Happiness (1987) for HBO. He also produced an NBC comedy special with the Zucker Brothers and Disney titled Our Planet Tonight (1987). During four seasons as Supervising Producer on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries (1987), he received four Emmy nominations.
From May 1988 to December 1991, Ed served as Vice President of Production at Cosgrove/Meurer Productions. Alongside his work on Unsolved Mysteries, he was Supervising Producer for several other Cosgrove/Meurer projects, including a series of six specials called Story Behind the Story (1991). He also produced Are You Safe?, a National Test on Crime Prevention with Don Mischer; The National Love & Sex Test; The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper; the CBS series Small Talk; and a dramatic pilot for NBC.
Between September 1993 and December 1994, Horwitz developed and prepared for the launch of Last Call (1994), a late-night series syndicated by MCA/Universal Television, serving as Executive Producer alongside Brandon Tartikoff, with whom he worked closely under an overall development and Executive Producer deal for Moving Target Productions and New World Entertainment from 1993 to 1995. During this time, he co-executive produced a one-hour dramatic pilot for FOX titled Love Is Strange.
From July 1995 to July 1996, Horwitz played a key role in the creation, development, sale, and production of several projects, including a strip pilot with Arnold Shapiro called LadyLaw, hosted by Marcia Clark; Divorce Me with C-3 and FOX; Opportunity Knocks with Disney; and Paybacks for New World. He also co-executive produced U.S. Customs Classified (1995), a 26-episode syndicated series for Stephen J. Cannell distributed by New World Entertainment. Additionally, he was Executive Producer of the FOX pilot True Life and Producer of an Unsolved Mysteries 90-minute live special for NBC.
Horwitz co-executive produced 44 hours of the infotainment series How'd They Do That? (1996) for The Learning Channel, produced a Fall Preview special with Seventeen Magazine for the WB, and served as Executive Consultant for a one-hour special edition of Extra. His initial work under his overall production deal with Warner Bros. and Telepictures included co-executive producing a CBS pilot called American Justice and developing a one-hour dramatic series for CBS for Lorimar.
Ed was Supervising Producer on NBC's primetime hit Meet My Folks (2002) and recently completed six years under an overall development and production deal with Warner Bros. and Telepictures. There, he served as Senior Supervising Producer of elimiDATE (2001), a successful late-night syndicated dating show, and 13 network primetime episodes of Elimidate Deluxe (2001) for WB. Prior to elimiDATE, Horwitz was Co-Executive Producer of the late-night syndicated game show Street Smarts (2000) and Senior Supervising Producer of the late-night strip Change of Heart (1998). He also acted as Executive Production Consultant on the daytime syndicated talk show Queen Latifah Show (1999) and was Executive Producer of Rosie O'Donnell's week of shows from the 1999 and 2000 Grammys.
From 2003 to 2016, Ed served as Executive Vice President of Production & International Distribution at LMNO Productions and LMNO Cable Group, overseeing international distribution of LMNO titles and leading production on all LMNO network, cable, and syndicated shows. He later became Head of Production and Co-Executive Producer of The Talk (2010), the CBS daytime talk show.
As of July 2024, Ed is the Head of Production on the daytime syndicated talk show The Jennifer Hudson Show. He has three sons: Aaron Horwitz, a graduate of USC School of Cinema and Television; Andy Horwitz, a graduate of the film program at Brooks Institute—both occasionally collaborate on personal film projects; and Jay Horwitz, Ed’s youngest son, who has chosen to stay out of the industry. Ed’s father is retired film financier Lew Horwitz. Ed resides in his dream home in the Hollywood Hills with his husband, Jerel Wilhort.
