Joel Surnow
Joel Surnow ( born December 18, 1955 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American producer and writer of television series.
Life and achievements
Joel Surnow is mainly due to the real-time series 24 known ( since 2001) starring Kiefer Sutherland, which he designed in collaboration with Robert Cochran.
Surnow was born to Jewish parents, and spent his early years in the U.S. city of Detroit. His two brothers, Arnold and Seymour are much older than him. His mother Reva Loceff was saleswoman in a clothing store. His father Max Surnow came from Detroit. With ten years Surnow moved with his parents to Beverly Hills, California. In 1972 he graduated from the Beverly Hills High School. In his early years he worked with his father as a carpet seller. Some semesters he attended the University of California at Berkeley. Meanwhile, he worked at the Pacific Film Archive, and saw at least five hundred movies there. From 1975 he studied art at the University of California (UCLA ) in Los Angeles and joined them with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA ) from. His first manuscript was titled Small Time. After a few years working as a scriptwriter for TV series his career took off in 1984 when he was involved in a majority of the first season of Miami Vice, in the Don Johnson played the lead role. Then Surnow got a year responsibility for the equalizer. This crime series with lead actor Edward Woodward was also a success.
Surnow is the cousin of Michael Loceff which is computer science professor, and was encouraged by Surnow for writing screenplays of television series. Both were involved from the outset in the company Jamboa Learning Technologies Inc. for online teaching. Surnow was director of this company.
With his Jewish wife Wendy Kaygen (* 1955), studied medicine, he has two daughters, Molly ( born 1979 ) and Rosie ( b. 1981 ). The marriage ended in divorce in 1985. Four years later married Surnow for the second time. His Catholic wife, Colleen Carroll ( born 1959 ) worked in the film development. They have three daughters, Rachael (* 1990), Grace (* 1992 ) and a third daughter.
Surnow took over the final season of Falcon Crest (1989-1990), where he met Robert Cochran, with whom he later worked in the television series Nikita and 24. In 1992 he worked on the series Covington Cross in England. Over his twenty-five year career he produced and wrote for various films and especially crime and action series. He invented the dramatic spy series Nikita (La Femme Nikita ) (1997-2001 ), in which Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis were the lead roles. Surnow has consulted as an Executive Consultant and directed several episodes directed. Together with Robert Cochran, he created the original concept of the action series 24 (since 2001) and worked as an executive producer with. This real-time series is in the twenty-four episodes of season one each hour of the day; they followed in the U.S. by about fifteen million viewers weekly. Each relay team in the U.S. had higher viewership than the previous one, except the third season. The series has been renewed for another two years. The seventh and eighth season will be broadcast in the USA in the years 2009 and 2010. A movie is planned after the series ended.
2003 won Surnow for the dramatic television series 24 along with other the price of the Television Producer of the Year Award in Episodic at the PGA Golden Laurel Awards, for which he was also nominated in 2004, 2006 and 2007 for 24. He was honored for 24 Emmy 2002. From 2002 to 2005 he was also nominated every year for 24 for an Emmy. In 2006 he received another Emmy for 24 as Outstanding Drama Series. From the Writers Guild of America, he was nominated in 2007 for 24 for the WGA Award along with others.
The television series 24 was referred to as the exciting TV series of all time and as a pioneering series of the 21st century.
From 18 February 2007, the Fox News Channel broadcast two episodes of the new satire show The 1/2 Hour News Hour, which was developed by Surnow and Manny Coto. It is the Daily Show similar, but depends in contrast to the conservative American audience. Thirteen other parts of this show are broadcast weekly from 13 May 2007. The original working title was This Just In.
In 2007, Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran plan, inter alia, the series The Call and together with David Ehrman, Howard Gordon and Jon Cassar the series and the pilot episode Company Man, whose working title was NSA Innocent.
Surnows production company Real Time Entertainment is based in the San Fernando Valley, which is north of Los Angeles.