Dick Wolf

Audiences have fallen hard for the hit series CSI, but while that show (a Jerry Bruckheimer production) begins and ends with the titular crime scene investigation, producer Dick Wolf has for years been serving up a show with a more comprehensive view of the justice system—“Law and Order.” While the popular series and its many spin-offs remain Dick Wolf’s best-known achievement, he has had a long career writing and producing crime TV. He penned an episode for the Michael Mann series “Miami Vice” among an array of projects focusing on cops and robbers.

“Law and Order” has been praised as a cerebral show that shows all sides of the justice system and its impact on peoples’ lives. While audiences are often made to despise the criminals behind the heinous crimes the series revolves around, they are also shown these individuals’ humanity. There are often compelling reasons for the murders that open each episode to have been committed, and this and other factors leave the people working within the system with feelings of ambiguity about their job.

Born December 20, 1946 in New York City, Dick Wolf left the University of Pennsylvania twenty-three years later, and moved into the television industry by way of a successful advertising career. His production smarts quickly took him beyond television commercials to producing a show that is a consistent Emmy frontrunner. A writer himself, the writing that populates his series is story-driven and always culturally relevant, touching on everything from the drug war to free speech issues to female circumcision.

His sensitive portrayal of people from all walks of life has won him praise and awards from the anti-defamation league, while his fast moving series don’t lose sight of the individual characters that make up his urban landscapes. Always the advertiser, Dick Wolf often describes his series’ success—and his goals for it—in terms of its financial success. It’s been considerable.