Charles Hirschhorn is an American producer and media executive, currently serving as president of

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

Early life and education

Hirschhorn grew up in Chicago. He graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1979 with a B.A. degree in Economics.

Career

Fox Broadcasting Company

In 1987 Hirschhorn was named vice president of development for the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

, where he supervised the network's prime-time development projects. He helped develop the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winning sketch comedy television series ''

In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in a ...

''.

The Walt Disney Company

Hirschhorn began his tenure at

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

as executive vice president of Hollywood Pictures. Under his leadership, the studio released over twenty films, including ''The Joy Luck Club'', ''

The Santa Clause ''The Santa Clause'' is a 1994 American Christmas fantasy comedy film written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, and directed by John Pasquin. The first installment in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise, it stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordi ...

'', and ''

Quiz Show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...

''. In 1997 Hirschhorn was named president of

Walt Disney Television Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enterta ...

and executive vice president of

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group The Walt Disney Studios is an American film and entertainment studio, and is the Studios Content segment of the Walt Disney Company. Based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, the studio is best known for its multifacete ...

. During this tenure he relaunched

The Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

and oversaw the development of seventeen movies, including '' Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella'' and ''

Life-Size ''Life-Size'' is a 2000 American fantasy-comedy television film directed by Mark Rosman and starring Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks. It originally premiered on March 5, 2000 on ABC as part of ''The Wonderful World of Disney'' block. The film fo ...

''.

G4

In 2000, Hirschhorn founded G4, a cable television network focused on video games. Hirschhorn was intrigued by the work video game developers were doing with animation. He was also motivated by the enthusiasm around events such as E3. He served as the company's CEO from 2000 - 2005 and oversaw the channel's official launch in 2002.

Retirement Living TV

In 2007, Hirschhorn was appointed COO of

Retirement Living TV RLTV (previously known as Retirement Living TV) was an American cable television network. Launched on September 5, 2006, the channel targeted a demographic aged 50 years and older. Its topics and programs included health and wellness, finance, t ...

, a cable television network focused on programming for senior citizens.

AEG Television

As president of

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

Television, Hirschhorn launched and co-managed

AXS TV AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming (such as concert films, documentaries, and reality series involving musicians) and combat sport ...

, a cable television channel focused on live music and entertainment programming.

Otis College of Art and Design

In February of 2020, Hirschhorn was announced as the new president of

. His term officially began June 1.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Otis College of Art and Design faculty Harvard College alumni {{Improve categories, date=December 2020