Jason Katims (born November 30, 1960) is an American television writer, producer, and playwright. He is best known as the creator of several television series, including Relativity (1996), Roswell (1999–2002), Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), Parenthood (2010–2015), About a Boy (2014–2015) and Rise (2018).
Early life and family Jason Katims was born to a Jewish familyTablet Magazine: "Dream Team To Produce Pilot of Michael Sokolove’s ‘Drama High’ - Two Jewish producers—Jeffrey Seller of ‘Hamilton’ and Jason Katims of NBC’s ‘Friday Night Lights’—will help create a pilot for Sokolove’s critically-acclaimed book about high school theater in Levittown, PA" by Zoë Miller retrieved October 22, 2017 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and raised first in Crown Heights and later in Midwood.Esquire: "The Cult of Jason Katims. The man behind Friday Night Lights and Parenthood has a gift for making men a little verklempt. It's made him a power in traditional TV. Now he's betting on something entirely different" By Mike Sager March 30, 2016 His father Robert Katims was an actor and a salesman; his mother Ruth Sandra Ohsie, an English and philosophy major, "did some teachings". His parents were "very politically active, very left-leaning." He has an older brother and sister.
Before studying theater at Queens College in Queens, New York City, he graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School.
He married his high school sweetheart; they have two children, Phoebe and Sawyer Katims.
Career Katims was a playwright in New York until director and producer Ed Zwick asked him if he wanted to write for television and films.
In 1994, he wrote three episodes for the ABC teen drama My So-Called Life. He created Relativity in 1996 but the TV series was cancelled after 17 episodes. He subsequently created Roswell, which gained cult following.
Katims worked on the NBC series Friday Night Lights as head writer and executive producer. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series at the February 2007 ceremony for his work on the first season of Friday Night Lights. He was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Dramatic Series the following year at the February 2008 ceremony for his work on the second season of Friday Night Lights. Katims was nominated for Best Dramatic Series a second time at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the third season of Friday Night Lights. He was nominated for the WGA Award for Best Drama Series for the third consecutive year at the February 2010 ceremony for his work on the fourth season. In 2011, he was honored by an award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in Friday Night Lights.
Katims is also the creator of and executive producer for another NBC series, Parenthood, based on the feature film of the same name and a short-lived TV series that followed; Katims' series debuted in 2010 and ended in 2015. Katims based that series' Max Braverman character on his life with his own son, who has Asperger syndrome.
Katims developed About a Boy, a 2014 TV series based on the novel of the same name, for NBC.
He has written a play, The Man Who Couldn't Dance and is a former member of Stagewrights, a playwriting collective in New York City.
Katims also developed Almost Family, a 2019 TV series based on the Australian series Sisters, for Fox.
On June 15, 2020, Katims is the writer of As We See It, based on Israeli series On the Spectrum for Amazon Prime Video.
More recently, he signed a multi-year overall deal with Imagine Television.
Filmography Film The Pallbearer (1996) The Vow (2012)
Television The numbers in directing and writing credits refer to the number of episodes.
Title Year Credited as Network Notes Creator Director Writer Executiveproducer My So-Called Life 1994 (3) ABC Story editor Relativity 1996 (7) Pilot writer Roswell 1999–2002 (17) The WB DeMarco Affairs 2004 ABC Fertile Ground 2005 N/A Pepper Dennis 2006 (2) The WB The Wedding Bells 2007 (1) Fox Friday Night Lights 2006–2011 (2) (10) NBC The 101 Network Parenthood 2010–2015 (3) (21) NBC About a Boy 2014–2015 (6) The Path 2016 (1) Pure Genius 2016–2017 (3) CBS Rise 2018 (5) NBC Almost Family 2019–2020 (2) Fox As We See It 2022 (3) Amazon Prime Video Dear Edward 2023 Apple TV+
References
External links