Mitchell Hurwitz

A go-getter right from childhood, Mitchell Hurwitz had established a business before entering his teens, wrote plays in high school, and moved straight into the world of television production upon finishing university. Within only a few years, Hurwitz was acting as either executive producer or creator of his own programs. His first success came with "The John Larroquette Show" (NBC, 1993-96) on which he also served as a writer, but the dark and offbeat tone that attracted praise was soon lost due to network tampering. Follow-up ventures like "The Ellen Show" (CBS, 2001-02) proved short-lived, but Hurwitz really hit his stride with "Arrested Development" (Fox, 2003-06), the sharply written, expertly performed look at the hopelessly peculiar Bluth family. The Emmy Award-winning sitcom was highly acclaimed, but consistently struggled to find an audience. In the wake of strong notices from critics, Fox supported "Arrested Development" through two more seasons of weak ratings before finally throwing in the towel. However, thanks to fan enthusiasm and high DVD sales, it never truly went away and there were frequent rumors about either a return to television or new life as a feature film. Even though he had not enjoyed a long-running series, Hurwitz ranked among the most highly respected television producers and his revivification of "Arrested Development" as exclusive new content for Netflix Streaming marked him as an innovator to watch.