josh schwartz

Josh Schwartz was born on August 6, 1976, in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents, Steve and Honey Schwartz, were toy inventors at Hasbro, contributing to the development of popular toys like Transformers and My Little Pony. From an early age, Schwartz demonstrated an ambition to become a writer, winning an essay contest at summer camp at age seven for a review of the movie ‘Gremlins’. By age twelve, he maintained a subscription to the entertainment industry newspaper Variety, highlighting his early interest in the field. He attended the private Wheeler School, graduating in 1994, and later enrolled in the film school at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1995 to study screen and television writing. During his time at USC, he joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and became its president, experiences that later informed his work.

While still a sophomore at USC, Schwartz wrote an autobiographical screenplay called ‘Providence’ as a homework assignment. Although initially ineligible for an award, the screenplay garnered significant attention and was purchased by Sony’s TriStar Pictures in 1997 for a deal worth up to $1 million, before he had even graduated. This early success led him to drop out of USC to pursue his career full-time. He went on to write television pilots for ABC/Disney (‘Brookfield’) and Warner Bros. TV (‘Wall to Wall Records’), although neither ultimately aired. His breakthrough came in 2003 when he created and executive produced ‘The O.C.’ for Fox. At 26, Schwartz became the youngest person in network history to create a series and oversee its day-to-day production. ‘The O.C.’ gained immediate popularity, influencing pop culture, amplifying indie rock music, and earning Schwartz a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for its pilot. After four seasons, ‘The O.C.’ concluded in 2007.

Following ‘The O.C.’, Schwartz continued to expand his producing and writing endeavors, often collaborating with Stephanie Savage. He developed and executive produced ‘Gossip Girl’ for The CW, based on Cecily von Ziegesar’s book series, which also became a highly successful show. In 2007, he co-created and wrote the action-comedy-spy series ‘Chuck’ for NBC. His production company, Fake Empire, has been involved in several other notable projects, including adaptations of popular properties such as ‘Runaways’ for Marvel (2017-2019), a reboot of ‘Dynasty’ (2017-2022) for The CW, and ‘Nancy Drew’ (2019-2023) for The CW. He also directed the film ‘Fun Size’ in 2012 and the TV mini-series ‘Looking for Alaska’ in 2019, further solidifying his diverse contributions to film and television.