Ed Zwick in Conversation with Dave Karger
Born in Winnetka, Illinois, Edward Zwick began directing and acting in high school and trained as an apprentice at the Academy Festival in Lake Forest. While studying literature at Harvard, he continued writing and directing for the theatre. Upon graduation, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to study in Europe with some of the major innovative theatre companies.
Zwick was accepted as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute in 1975. Timothy and the Angel, Zwick’s AFI short film, won first place in the student film competition at the 1976 Chicago Film Festival and caught the attention of the producers of the television series Family. He served as story editor on Family and subsequently became a director and producer.
For his work on the television movie Special Bulletin (as director, producer and co-writer), Zwick received two Emmy Awards. It also marked the beginning of his collaboration with Marshall Herskovitz, with whom he then created the Emmy Award-winning television series thirtysomething. Together Herskovitz and Zwick created The Bedford Falls Company as their home for film and television projects, including the critically acclaimed television series My So-Called Life and Relativity and the Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning series Once and Again.
Zwick began his feature film career directing About Last Night. He went on to direct the Academy Award-winning films Glory and Legends of the Fall. Zwick also directed the films Courage Under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Defiance, Love & Other Drugs, Pawn Sacrifice and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Zwick and Herskovitz also produced the films Traffic—winner of two Golden Globes and four Academy Awards—directed by Steven Soderbergh and the Academy Award-nominated film I Am Sam. Zwick most recently produced and directed Trial by Fire, starring Laura Dern and Jack O’Connell, and wrote the New York Times bestseller Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood. This heartfelt and wry career memoir gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Zwick has been honored with three Emmy Awards, the Humanitas Prize, the Writer’s Guild of America Award, two Peabody Awards, a Director’s Guild of America Award and the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Award from the American Film Institute. He received an Academy Award as a producer of 1999’s best picture Shakespeare in Love.
Dave Karger is a host on Turner Classic Movies. He has also made over 200 live appearances on NBC’s TODAY as an entertainment commentator. He began his career with a 17-year stint as a writer at Entertainment Weekly, where he wrote over 50 cover stories for the magazine. He also served as the Academy’s official red-carpet greeter on Oscar night, only the third person ever to hold that post. In 2015, Karger was the recipient of the Publicists Guild’s Press Award, honoring the year’s outstanding entertainment journalist. He is a proud graduate of Duke University and splits his time between Palm Springs, Los Angeles and New York.
The first 200 attendees will receive a free copy of Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions.
This event will be live streaming. WATCH HERE.
