Anthony E. Zuiker (pronounced ; born August 17, 1968) is an American television writer, television producer, and author. He is best known as the creator of ''
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
''. He produced all four editions of the
''CSI'' franchise: ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', ''
CSI: Miami
''CSI: Miami'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: Miami'') is an American police procedural drama television series that ran from September 23, 2002 until April 8, 2012 on CBS. Featuring David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Emily Procter as Dete ...
'', ''
CSI: NY
''CSI: NY'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: New York'', stylized as ''CSI: NY/Crime Scene Investigation'') is an American police procedural television series that ran on CBS from September 22, 2004, to February 22, 2013, for a total of nine seaso ...
'', and ''
CSI: Cyber''. His production company is Dare to Pass.
Besides his work on ''CSI'', he created the murder mystery show ''
Whodunnit?''. Zuiker was also the creator of the web series ''
Cybergeddon''. He received a 2013 Pioneer Award from the
International Digital Emmy Awards
The International Digital Emmy Awards recognise excellence in content created and designed for viewer interaction and/or delivery on a digital platform (i.e. interactive TV, mobile, Internet, etc.) originating outside of the United States, and are ...
for ''Cybergeddon''. In 2011, he launched
BlackBoxTV for
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. Most recently, Zuiker launched his first animated series for kids, ''Mysteryopolis'', on Nabi tablets.
Life and career
Zuiker was born in
Blue Island, Illinois
Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,55 ...
.
When he was six months old, his family moved to
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
, where his mother, Diana, worked as a
blackjack dealer, and his father as a ''
maître d'''.
[ Zuiker attended Chaparral High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. He attended Arizona State University in ]Tempe, Arizona
, settlement_type = City
, named_for = Vale of Tempe
, image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg
, imagesize = 260px
, image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...
, for three years and then transferred to the University of La Verne
The University of La Verne (ULV) is a private university in La Verne, California. Founded in 1891, the university is composed of the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business & Public Management, the LaFetra College of Education, College o ...
in La Verne, California
La Verne is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 31,063 at the 2010 census, down from 31,638 at the 2000 census.
History
The European history of the area dates back to the 1830s when Ygnacio Palomare ...
, before transferring to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...
, where he graduated. During all four years he was involved in competitive forensics, advancing as far as semifinals at the national speech tournament.
His first script named ''The Runner'' was given to the William Morris Agency
The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ag ...
by his high school friend Dustin Lee Abraham (who worked as a runner for the Jewish mob while in high school) and returned with the message "No on writer, no on movie." Zuiker was demoralized stating "I was like, wow that’s a bummer." After initially failing with the William Morris Agency, they sold the script to a Showtime director for a mere $25,000 before the Creative Artists Agency
Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...
had reviewed it. CAA had found a lucrative buyer but the director refused to sell and instead produced what Abraham felt was a lackluster movie, '' The Runner'', in 1999 (although it starred John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy series ''Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he rec ...
, Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom ''Friends'', which aired from 1994 ...
, and Ron Eldard
Ronald Jason Eldard (born February 20, 1965) is an American actor.
Early life
Eldard was born on Long Island, New York. He is the sixth of seven children, and has four sisters and two brothers. He is of Irish and Scottish descent. Eldard's moth ...
).
This early effort led him to pursue scriptwriting as a profession. In a talk at the International Mystery Writers Festival in June 2008, Zuiker said that he was working as a tram driver in Las Vegas when he came up with the idea for the series. He said he was about to go out to play basketball with some friends when his first wife asked him to stay in and watch ''The New Detectives
''The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science'' (or simply ''The New Detectives'', formally "Forensic Detectives") is a documentary true crime television show that aired two to three different cases in forensic science per episode from 1 ...
'' on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...
. "I decided to stay, and that changed everything". He also freely admitted that he knew nothing about writing for TV and therefore his pilot script "broke all the rules," thereby creating the programs' characteristic visual and storytelling styles. His concept was picked up by David Seltzer at Addis/Wechsler who showed it to his manager Margaret Riley and they proceeded to market it to the various agencies. Creative Artists agent Scott Greenberg liked the script and brought him to the attention of Jonathan Littman
Jonathan Littman (born 1962/1963) is an American producer who serves as president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television.
Biography
Littman was raised in West Orange, New Jersey, the son of Dr. Harold Littman and Annette Littman. He is a graduate of ...
, president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television
Jerry Bruckheimer Films Inc. (JBF) is an American independent film production company of Jerry Bruckheimer, formed in 1995, after cutting his ties with film producer Don Simpson, before his subsequent death in 1996. It produced hits such as ...
, and Zuiker was signed to produce for television. Nina Tassler, then head of drama at CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
successfully pitched the script to her superiors and a contract was signed.
The show's success led a joint venture overall deal with CBS Productions and Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...
, which occurred on June 5, 2003.
Criticism
On October 25, 2007, he received the Big Brother Award Austria 2007 in the category of communication and marketing. The jury stated among other things, "The CSI television series present computer surveillance
Computer and network surveillance is the monitoring of computer activity and data stored locally on a computer or data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet. This monitoring is often carried out covertly and may be comple ...
, DNA-analysis and the overthrow of civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
in an uncritical, trivialized and dangerously onesided kind of way". Furthermore, the rights of people in general and the suspects in particular would be pictured primarily as impediments of investigations.
Personal life
In 1999, he married his first wife, Jennifer Zuiker, with whom he has three sons. The couple later divorced. In 2013, he married schoolteacher Michelle Territo.
Books
On September 8, 2009, Zuiker released '' Level 26: Dark Origins'', a book with associated web-based motion picture and interactive elements which he terms a "digi-novel". Zuiker has produced 20 cinematic cyber-bridges, which readers will be prompted to view online using special codes embedded in the book's text every 20 pages or so. The Level26.com website and online community was created with the help of Miles Beckett, the creator of hit faux vlogger lonelygirl15
''Lonelygirl15'' is an American science fiction thriller web series created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders, Greg Goodfried, and Amanda Goodfried. It was independently released on YouTube from June 16, 2006 to August 1, 2008, and was also briefl ...
. "I wanted to tell a story 'too hot' for television while at the same time giving the existing crime reader a different experience, " says Zuiker.
On October 14, 2010, ''Level 26: Dark Prophecy'' was released and a third Level 26 book was released in 2011; it was also released as an iPad application, which was designed and developed by Hooray.
Sqweegel, the forensic-proof serial killer from the first Level 26 novel ''Dark Origins'', appeared in a season 11 episode of ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
'' as the central character.
Zuiker released a personal memoir in 2011, ''Mr. CSI: How A Vegas Dreamer Made A Killing In Hollywood, One Body At A Time'' (Harper Collins). He is also the author of Whodunnit?: Murder in Mystery Manor (Hyperion).
Philanthropy
A new school theater is named after him: the Anthony E. Zuiker Theater at the Chaparral High School (Nevada). Zuiker is a 1986 graduate of the school.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuiker, Anthony E.
1968 births
Television producers from Illinois
American television writers
American male television writers
Living people
People from the Las Vegas Valley
University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumni
People from Blue Island, Illinois
Showrunners
Screenwriters from Illinois
Screenwriters from Nevada
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American male writers