Film & TV
Joel Surnow
born 1955 · television writer and producer
Co-creator of the thriller series 24 and La Femme Nikita, born in Detroit and raised first in Michigan and then in Los Angeles.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 70- Detroit years
- 1955–1960s
- Field
- Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Joel Surnow was born in Detroit in 1955 and spent the first part of his childhood in Michigan before his family moved to Los Angeles. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, for two years and graduated from UCLA's film school in 1976. His breakthrough came in 1984 as a writer and executive story editor on the first season of Miami Vice, followed by work on The Equalizer, Wiseguy and Nowhere Man. He co-created La Femme Nikita (1997–2001), which became the top-rated drama on basic cable in its first two seasons, and then, with Robert Cochran, created 24 (2001–2010), the real-time counterterrorism thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. In 2006 24 won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. No Detroit address or school is documented; his link to the city is his birth and early years.
Highlights
- Co-created 24 (2001–2010); Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series (2006)
- Co-created La Femme Nikita (1997–2001)
- Writer and story editor on Miami Vice (1984)
- UCLA film school graduate (1976)