Episode 210 - Marshall Herskovitz

MARSHALL HERSKOVITZ is a writer, producer, and director who has won numerous awards for his work in television and film.  Born in Philadelphia, he attended Brandeis University, then moved to Los Angeles in 1975, where he attended the American Film Institute.  One of his classmates was Edward Zwick, and there the two created what is currently the longest-surviving creative partnership in Hollywood: The Bedford Falls Company, named for the town in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life.  In the ensuing decades they created such TV series as thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again; and Herskovitz variously produced and/or wrote many films with Zwick, including Legends of the Fall, Traffic, The Last Samurai, and Blood Diamond.  Herskovitz also directed Jack the Bear and the cult-favorite Dangerous Beauty. In 2007, Herskovitz created the groundbreaking online series and social network quarterlife, which at the time was the internet’s most successful scripted series, and the first online series to transition to network television. A longtime environmentalist, Herskovitz has served on the board of several organizations dedicated to fighting climate change.  He is a past president of the Producers Guild of America.