---
name: "Eric Overmyer"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/eric-overmyer"
fi1m_id: "eric-overmyer"
imdb_id: "nm0653899"
tmdb_id: 69983
wikidata_id: "Q3056371"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "25 September 1951"
died: "16 March 2026"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 82
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-09-17T14:15:18.132866+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."
---

# Eric Overmyer

## Identity

Eric Overmyer

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/eric-overmyer
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** eric-overmyer
- **IMDb ID:** nm0653899
- **TMDB ID:** 69983
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3056371
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Overmyer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3056371, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0653899/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/69983

Writer and producer. Born 25 September 1951 in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Died 16 March 2026.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 25 September 1951, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- **Died:** 16 March 2026
- **Active:** 1982–2010
- **Also known as:** Eric Ellis Overmyer
- **Frequently works with:** [Brad Anderson](https://film.one/person/brad-anderson.md), [Alan Taylor](https://film.one/person/alan-taylor.md), [David Mills](https://film.one/person/david-mills.md), [David Simon](https://film.one/person/david-simon.md), [Ed Bianchi](https://film.one/person/ed-bianchi.md), [Ernest Dickerson](https://film.one/person/ernest-r-dickerson.md), [Jim McKay](https://film.one/person/jim-mckay.md), [Jorge Zamacona](https://film.one/person/jorge-zamacona.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as writer, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 78 (1), 1990s 80 (2), 2000s 90 (1), 2010s 81 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 85 to 82 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 4 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 6, Crime 4, Mystery 1
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Overmyer, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3056371, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0653899/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/69983

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Wire*](https://film.one/tv/the-wire.md) (90), [*Treme*](https://film.one/tv/treme.md) (82), [*Boardwalk Empire*](https://film.one/tv/boardwalk-empire.md) (80)
- **Hulu:** [*Law & Order*](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md) (72)

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

## Fi1m on Eric Overmyer

> Eric Overmyer wrote television that declined to hurry. With David Simon he built dramas out of neighbourhoods rather than cases and let the talk and the music run their full length. We rate the results highly, with one warning about patience.

Somewhere in most episodes of *Treme*, a band starts a number and the programme stays until the last note. Nobody is shot to bring us back to the story, because there is very little story to come back to. Three months after the flood, a dozen people in one New Orleans neighbourhood try to do what they did before, badly and without money, and the series asks whether that counts as rebuilding. It is the clearest example of how Eric Overmyer wrote: give the audience a place and some people, and do not rescue them with a plot.

He came to television from the stage, which is where the talk came from. He began in the mid-1980s on *St. Elsewhere* (1982), a hospital drama we like for its flawed staff even when the scripts insist on a lesson we had already taken. From 1996 he wrote and produced *Homicide: Life on the Street*, the police series that made its detectives as absorbing as their cases, and it was there he first worked with David Simon. He wrote on the fourth series of *The Wire* in 2006. Then came *Treme* (2010–2013), which he made with Simon and drew from his own years in the city, and after it *Bosch* (2014–2021), which he created from Michael Connelly's novels and ran for seven seasons, along with a stint on *Boardwalk Empire* and the third series of *The Man in the High Castle*.

What he did well was regional speech and the daily workings of institutions that do not work: a homicide squad, a flooded parish, a police department in Baltimore. What he did not do was hurry, and that is the caveat. *Treme* asks more patience than most drama, and there is at least one character in it we would happily have done without. The first time a song ran its full length without a cut away, we were restless. By the third we had stopped wanting the cut, because it had become plain that the music was what these people were actually rebuilding. That is the moment the series won us, and it took the better part of an episode to get there.

It is hard to say where a staff writer's work ends and the other writers' begins, and on *The Wire* and *Homicide* we would not try. Nobody has had much bad to say about Overmyer; the nearest thing to a reservation is that his plays never travelled as far as his television did. That is a critic's note, not a viewer's. Start with *Treme*, and give it three episodes. If by then you are checking the clock, *Homicide* is the way in, and it will not make you wait for the plot.

## Biography

Eric Overmyer, also credited as Eric Ellis Overmyer, was an American writer and producer for television. He studied theatre at Reed College and began his career as a playwright before moving into television writing in the mid-1980s.

Overmyer wrote for series including *St. Elsewhere*, *Homicide: Life on the Street* and *Law & Order*. He joined the crew of *The Wire* as a writer and consulting producer for the fourth season in 2006, later serving as producer, and shared a Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Dramatic Series and an Edgar Award for the season’s writing. He co-created *Treme* with David Simon and created the series *Bosch*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com, deadline.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *Boardwalk Empire* (2010), Fi1m 80, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/boardwalk-empire.md)
- *Treme* (2010), Fi1m 82, Creator, Teleplay, Story, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/treme.md)
- *The Wire* (2002), Fi1m 90, Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-wire.md)
- *Homicide: Life on the Street* (1993), Fi1m 89, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/homicide-life-on-the-street.md)
- *Law & Order* (1990), Fi1m 72, Teleplay, Writer, Story — [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md)
- *St. Elsewhere* (1982), Fi1m 78, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/st-elsewhere.md)

## Complete filmography (22)

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

- *Bosch: Legacy* (2022), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Saints & Strangers* (2015), series, Creator
- *The Man in the High Castle* (2015), series, Writer
- *Bosch* (2015), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Creator
- *The Affair* (2014), series, Writer
- *Boardwalk Empire* (2010), series, Writer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/boardwalk-empire.md)
- *Treme* (2010), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Story, Teleplay, Creator — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/treme.md)
- *The Wire* (2002), series, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-wire.md)
- *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, Story, Teleplay
- *Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis* (2000), series, Teleplay
- *Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis* (2000), Teleplay
- *The Beat* (2000), series, Writer
- *Homicide: The Movie* (2000), Writer, Co-Executive Producer
- *Rear Window* (1998), Teleplay, Writer
- *Prince Street* (1997), series, Writer, Co-Executive Producer
- *New York News* (1995), series, Writer
- *Central Park West* (1995), series, Writer
- *Homicide: Life on the Street* (1993), series, Writer — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/tv/homicide-life-on-the-street.md)
- *Sisters* (1991), series, Writer, Supervising Producer
- *Law & Order* (1990), series, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Consulting Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md)
- *The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd* (1987), series, Writer
- *St. Elsewhere* (1982), series, Writer — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/st-elsewhere.md)

## Gallery

- ![Eric Overmyer](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-78fe9774b540.jpg) Eric Overmyer — Nordiske Mediedager, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/NMD_Eric_Overmyer_-_NMD_2018_%2840964558305%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-NMD_Eric_Overmyer_-_NMD_2018_%2840964558305%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-0c3e0420d9f5.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%281%29.jpg/1280px-Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%281%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-32f4eff98af2.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%282%29.jpg/1280px-Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-d2248e8aa251.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%283%29.jpg/1280px-Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%283%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-f728128c25f7.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Eric Overmyer, Nina Kostroff Noble, David Simon, and George Pelecanos, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldor (2012) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%284%29.jpg/1280px-Eric_Overmyer%2C_Nina_Kostroff_Noble%2C_David_Simon%2C_and_George_Pelecanos%2C_May_2012_%284%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS George Pelecanos, Nina Kostroff Noble, Eric Overmyer and David Simon, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/61009/gallery-0165ea9a8a7c.jpg) PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS George Pelecanos, Nina Kostroff Noble, Eric Overmyer and David Simon, 71st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf (2012) — Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Eric_Overmyer_%28Treme%29_%287268600492%29.jpg/1280px-Eric_Overmyer_%28Treme%29_%287268600492%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/eric-overmyer