Joel Surnow is an
American writer and producer best known for being the creator of the
Emmy winning television series
24, and the cult-following hit series
La Femme Nikita. He also produced the
Fox News Channel The Half Hour News Hour.
Biography
Surnow was born to Jewish parents in
Michigan, and his family moved to
Los Angeles when he was ten years old. His father was an
itinerant carpet salesman from Odessa, Ukraine, his mother a clothing retailer of Lithuanian descent. He graduated from Beverly Hills High in 1972 and attended
UC Berkeley before transferring to the
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television in 1975 after a year and a half at Berkeley.
Soon after graduation, he began writing for film; he then switched to television. His breakthrough came when he began writing for
Miami Vice, in 1984. By the end of the year,
Universal Studios, which owned the show, assigned Surnow to
The Equalizer, as Supervising Producer, about a
CIA officer turned
vigilante.
