Fake Empire was formed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Sav­age in 2010. Together Josh and Stephanie have writ­ten and pro­duced hit shows such as The O.C. and Gos­sip Girl, and under their new ven­ture they con­tinue to develop new tele­vi­sion series for Warner Bros. while expand­ing their busi­ness to include fea­ture films under their deal with Para­mount. While each project is unique, the goal is the same: to speak to young audi­ences in a contemporary voice.

In 2003, Josh became the youngest per­son in tele­vi­sion his­tory to cre­ate and run a prime­time series when he brought The O.C. to life for FOX.  After serv­ing as Exec­u­tive Pro­ducer for the show’s four-​​season run, Josh went on to co-​​create and exec­u­tive pro­duce the pop­u­lar spy-​​comedy-​​romance-​​action series, Chuck. Chuck recently com­pleted a five sea­son run on NBC. 

Stephanie got her start at Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films, and went on to form Won­der­land Sound and Vision with direc­tor McG. While at Flower Films, Stephanie helped develop fea­ture films such as Charlie’s Angels, Never Been Kissed, and Don­nie Darko. Won­der­land was a pro­ducer of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throt­tle, and the com­pany soon expanded into tele­vi­sion, devel­op­ing and pro­duc­ing The O.C. with Josh. Stephanie’s first effort in tele­vi­sion writ­ing was one of the The O.C.’s most endur­ing episodes, “The Best Chris­mukkah Ever.” She soon left Won­der­land to focus full-​​​​time on writ­ing and producing.

After find­ing suc­cess in their first joint ven­ture, Josh and Stephanie co-​​developed Gos­sip Girl, based on the book series of the same name by author Cecily Von Ziege­sar.  The show brings high fash­ion — and even higher drama — to The CW on Mon­day nights.  The show is now in its fifth sea­son, and airs on The CW on Mon­days at 8:00 pm. At 9:00 pm on the same chan­nel, view­ers can watch the newest Fake Empire project, Hart of Dixie, star­ring Rachel Bil­son as a big-​​​​city doc­tor try­ing to fit into the pecu­liar lit­tle town of Blue­bell, Alabama.

Other mem­bers of the Fake Empire team include Len Gold­stein and Lis Rowin­ski, who have come on board to help develop new projects in tele­vi­sion and film, respectively. 

Len heads up tele­vi­sion for Fake Empire after work­ing with Josh and Stephanie for many years in his role as an exec­u­tive at Warner Bros. Tele­vi­sion. After run­ning both the com­edy and drama divi­sions and ris­ing to Head of Devel­op­ment, Len tran­si­tioned to the pro­ducer side in 2010. He shep­herds Fake Empire’s devel­op­ment and will serve as an Exec­u­tive Pro­ducer on future series.

Lis Rowin­ski runs point on motion pic­ture devel­op­ment, and is based in the Fake Empire offices on the Para­mount lot. Lis was for­merly a Motion Pic­ture Lit­er­ary Agent at WME Enter­tain­ment, where her focus was on up-​​​​and-​​​​coming writ­ers and directors.