---
name: "Adam Horowitz"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/adam-horowitz"
fi1m_id: "adam-horowitz"
imdb_id: "nm0395271"
tmdb_id: 1214367
wikidata_id: "Q2395333"
roles: ["Writer","Producer","Director"]
born: "4 December 1971"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 69
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-10-07T04:02:45.687170+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Adam Horowitz

## Identity

Adam Horowitz

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/adam-horowitz
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** adam-horowitz
- **IMDb ID:** nm0395271
- **TMDB ID:** 1214367
- **Wikidata ID:** Q2395333
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Horowitz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2395333, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395271/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1214367

Writer and producer. Born 4 December 1971 in New York City, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer, Director
- **Born:** 4 December 1971, New York City, New York, USA
- **Active:** 1998–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 1 directing, 3 writing, 1 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Edward Kitsis](https://film.one/person/edward-kitsis.md), [Craig Zisk](https://film.one/person/craig-zisk.md), [David Petrarca](https://film.one/person/david-petrarca.md), [Ellen S. Pressman](https://film.one/person/ellen-s-pressman.md), [Elodie Keene](https://film.one/person/elodie-keene.md), [Jack Bender](https://film.one/person/jack-bender.md), [James Duff](https://film.one/person/james-duff.md), [Jessica Queller](https://film.one/person/jessica-queller.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 69, as writer, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 74 (2), 2010s 62 (2), 2020s 50 (1)
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 2, Action 1, Action & Adventure 1, Adventure 1, Mystery 1, Science Fiction 1
- **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $410m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Horowitz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2395333, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395271/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1214367

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Lost*](https://film.one/tv/lost.md) (81), [*One Tree Hill*](https://film.one/tv/one-tree-hill.md) (66), [*Once Upon a Time*](https://film.one/tv/once-upon-a-time.md) (65), [*TRON: Legacy*](https://film.one/film/tron-legacy.md) (60)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Adam Horowitz

> Adam Horowitz, usually writing with Edward Kitsis, is good at giving fantastical stories recognisable human worries. We like the warmth of his work, but the complicated plotting too often gets in the way.

In *Once Upon a Time* (2011), familiar fairy-tale figures have lives to get on with in a modern town. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz make that an inviting prospect: knowing the stories gives us a way into the characters without having to learn everything from scratch. The pleasure is in seeing people we think we know given room to surprise us. The trouble begins when explaining how their stories connect takes up time better spent letting them do something. That is our reservation about Horowitz as a storyteller: he cares about his characters, but can make keeping up with them unnecessarily hard.

The partnership with Kitsis runs through almost all his writing credits, so treating Horowitz as a solitary author would be misleading. Their staff work included *One Tree Hill* (2003), where the believable teenage hurt offers more interest than the familiar family quarrels. They joined *Lost* (2004) in 2005, working within an ensemble drama whose achievements cannot be assigned to any one writer. We found *Lost* frightening because the ensemble made the strangers’ struggle to survive feel urgent. The habit of postponing answers remains a frustration, but the cast gives us reasons to stay.

Their screenplay for *Tron: Legacy* (2010) puts a father-and-son story inside the science fiction. Creating and running *Once Upon a Time* for seven seasons gave them much more room to follow characters over time. That makes the series the clearest place to judge their preference for large casts and interconnected stories. We rate it more cautiously than *Lost*: the warmth and the cast make the sillier passages enjoyable, while the solemn fairy-tale flashbacks slow things down. Familiar characters help a fantasy get started, but they do not remove the need to choose which stories deserve the time.

The recurring weakness is the urge to keep adding: more characters, more connections, another use of a device that has already done its job. In the later seasons of *Once Upon a Time*, plots repeat themselves and too many characters are left without enough depth. There is enough affection for fairy tales here to make the programme worth considering for fantasy enthusiasts. Start with *Lost* for the stronger ensemble drama; choose *Once Upon a Time* if its familiar figures matter more to you than tidy plotting.

## Biography

Adam Horowitz is an American screenwriter and producer. Born on 4 December 1971 in New York City, he attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he met his frequent writing partner Edward Kitsis.

Horowitz and Kitsis began working together on series including *Fantasy Island*, *Felicity* and *Popular*. They joined the writing staff of *Lost* midway through its first season in 2004 and contributed episodes throughout its run. The pair co-created the series *Once Upon a Time* (2011), on which Horowitz also served as a writer, producer and director. They co-wrote the screenplay for *TRON: Legacy* (2010).

Horowitz and the *Lost* writing team won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series in 2006 and received further nominations for the series.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (5)

### Directed (1)

- *Once Upon a Time* (2011), Fi1m 65, Director, Story, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/once-upon-a-time.md)

### Wrote (3) — the average rests on these

- *TRON: Legacy* (2010), Fi1m 60, Story, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/tron-legacy.md)
- *Lost* (2004), Fi1m 81, Writer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/lost.md)
- *One Tree Hill* (2003), Fi1m 66, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/one-tree-hill.md)

### Produced (1)

- *TRON: Ares* (2025), Fi1m 50, Co-Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/tron-ares.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *TRON: Ares* (2025), Co-Producer — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/film/tron-ares.md)
- *Amazing Stories* (2020), series, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Dead of Summer* (2016), series, Writer, Director, Creator
- *E.W.A* (2016), Writer
- *Once Upon a Time in Wonderland* (2013), series, Writer, Creator
- *TRON: Uprising* (2012), series, Producer, Creator
- *Once Upon a Time* (2011), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Story, Director, Creator — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/once-upon-a-time.md)
- *TRON: Legacy* (2010), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/tron-legacy.md)
- *Confessions of an American Bride* (2007), Writer
- *Life As We Know It* (2004), series, Writer, Producer
- *Lost* (2004), series, Writer, Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/lost.md)
- *One Tree Hill* (2003), series, Writer — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/one-tree-hill.md)
- *Birds of Prey* (2002), series, Writer
- *Popular* (1999), series, Writer
- *Felicity* (1998), series, Writer
- *Fantasy Island* (1998), series, Writer
- *Black Sash*, series, Writer

## Gallery

- ![Adam Horowitz](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-b1740e65f145.jpg) Adam Horowitz — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Adam_Horowitz_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Lost executive producer Adam Horowitz I told him that I edit the Lost articles on Wikipedia and his response was somewhere between "lukewarm" and "I was not lis (2008)](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-756b1547ad9c.jpg) Lost executive producer Adam Horowitz I told him that I edit the Lost articles on Wikipedia and his response was somewhere between "lukewarm" and "I was not lis (2008) — thedemonhog, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Adam_Horowitz.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-d6c268fb4ca9.jpg) Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Adam_Horowitz_%26_Eddy_Kitsis_%287002067289%29.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz_%26_Eddy_Kitsis_%287002067289%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used els](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-a31c31d15159.jpg) Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used els — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Adam_Horowitz_%26_Edward_Kitsis_%287600470422%29.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz_%26_Edward_Kitsis_%287600470422%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-75b450bfdbed.jpg) Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Adam_Horowitz_%286855949594%29.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz_%286855949594%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere](https://film.one/media/person/100820/gallery-f21cb42d30d2.jpg) Adam Horowitz speaking at the 2012 WonderCon in Anaheim, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Adam_Horowitz_%286855950020%29.jpg/1280px-Adam_Horowitz_%286855950020%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/adam-horowitz