Joe Hortua is an American playwright, screenwriter, and producer. He has most recently worked as an Executive Producer and Writer on the

Emmy 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 ...

nominated television show '' Better Things'' on FX. Hortua has written such plays as ''Other Parents'', ''Making It'', and ''Between Us'' which have been performed at the

Manhattan Theatre Club Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has gr ...

and South Coast Repertory Theater. He is married with two children.

Early life

Born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove, Hortua attended

Niles West High School Niles West High School, officially Niles Township High School West or NWHS, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School Distric ...

and graduated from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

in 1993. While in college, Hortua was a Division I walk-on swimmer. He was born to a Colombian father and a Spanish mother and was the first member of his extended family to earn a college degree. Subsequently, Hortua went on to graduate school at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

receiving his MFA in playwriting and screenwriting in 1997. While at NYU, he studied under Tony Kushner, who in 2003 referred to Hortua as one of his favorite young playwrights.

Career

Hortua began his career as a playwright in New York City after graduating from NYU. His play ''Making It'' was commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre in 2002. The play was inspired by his years working at Lumi, an Italian eatery on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hortua began his television career in 2008 as a story editor on Life. He went on to staff on the shows '' Betrayal, Backstrom, Bones, The Night Shift,

Home Before Dark ''Home Before Dark'' is the twenty-seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. Released on May 5, 2008, it was the artist's second album for American Recordings. ''Home Before Dark'' received generally positive reviews f ...

and Little America.'' He most recently worked as an Executive Producer on '' Better Things'' for FX. Hortua has also written television pilots for the FX, Showtime, FOX, Lionsgate and CW network. In theatre, Hortua has written such plays as ''Other Parents, Making It, and Between Us'', which have been performed at the

and South Coast Repertory Theater. ''Between Us'' was translated into Hebrew and performed at the Be’er Theatre in Israel, and subsequently produced in 2010 at the

Ensemble Theatre The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company and theatre, situated in the Sydney suburb of Kirribilli, New South Wales. History It is Australia's longest continuously running professional theatre group, having given its first performa ...

in Australia. In 2008, the play was published by

Dramatists Play Service Dramatists Play Service (also known as The Play Service) is a theatrical-publishing and licensing house, established in 1936 by members of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Society for Authors' Representatives. DPS publishes English-language ...

. The screen adaptation of ''Between Us'' premiered in 2012 with stars Julia Stiles,

Taye Diggs Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs (born January 2, 1971) is an American stage and film actor. He is known for his roles in the Broadway musicals ''Rent'' and '' Hedwig and the Angry Inch'', the TV series ''Private Practice'' (2007-2013), ''Murder in the ...

David Harbour David Kenneth Harbour (born April 10, 1975) is an American actor. He has played supporting roles in films such as ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005), ''Quantum of Solace'' (2008), '' State of Play'' (2009), ''The Green Hornet'' (2011), ''End of W ...

and

Melissa George Melissa George (born 6 August 1976) is an Australian actress and entrepreneur. A former national artistic rollerskating champion and model, George began her acting career playing Angel Parrish in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1993– ...

in the leading roles.

Filmography

References

American dramatists and playwrights American television producers Living people 1971 births {{US-writer-stub