René Balcer

unreferenced|date=June 2008

René Balcer (born 1954) is an Emmy-Award winning Canadian television writer and producer.

He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and attended the Lower Canada College in Montreal. He earned his B.A. in Communication Studies from Concordia University in 1978.He began his career as a journalist, covering the Yom Kippur War as a cameraman. He later worked as a reporter and editor for various Canadian publications, and made documentary films for the National Film Board of Canada. In 1980, he moved to Los Angeles, where he collaborated with the cult film director Monte Hellman on a number of film projects. He later worked for a variety of notable film producers including Francis Coppola, Steven Tisch and Mace Neufeld. In 1990, he wrote his first television project for Steve Tisch, the MOW "Out On The Edge".

He is most noted for his writing and production work for the successful, Emmy Award-winning television series "Law & Order", and for creating its spin-off series '. Balcer has received four Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, three for his writing for "Law & Order", and a fourth for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent". He also wrote for the series , "and has penned three made-for-television movies, one of which "Out On The Edge" (1990) won the American Psychological Association Award for best television program."

Balcer won an Emmy in 1997 as Executive Producer of "Law & Order." He has also won a Peabody Award, a Writers Guild Award for his television writing, two Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association, a Career Award from the Reims International Television Festival, a Career Angie Award from the International Mystery Writers Festival, and a Maggie from Planned Parenthood for his teleplay "The Third Horseman". In 2004, he was awarded the "Alumnus of the Year" from Concordia University.

He was showrunner for Law & Order: Criminal Intent through the fifth season. In March of 2007, Balcer returned to "Law & Order" at the end of its 17th season as executive producer and head writer. He continued on as showrunner for the show's 18th and 19th seasons. He is currently writing a four-hour miniseries about the Sixties in conjunction with George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions and the A & E Network.

ee also

*List of famous Montrealers
*List of Quebec actors and actresses
*Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

External links

* [http://www.podengo.com/apocrypha/summer99/balcer99.html The apocrypha Interview: Rene Balcer] by Kitteridge
* [http://news.concordia.ca/recent_stories/003031.shtml Alumni Recognition Awards] — Concordia University
*imdb name|id=0049569|name=René Balcer
* [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117924182457803432.html?mod=moj_industries Balcer debates FCC commissioner on TV Violence] Wall Street Journal
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15597397 Rene Balcer on NPR's "Talk of the Nation"]