Susan Borowitz

Susan Stevenson Borowitz is an American writer and producer. She is best known for her work on Family Ties, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Aliens in the Family, and Pleasantville. During their marriage (1982–2005), she and writer and comedian Andy Borowitz co-created The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This series ran from 1990 to 1996 and led to Will Smith's stardom. It won NAACP's Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993. In addition, Susan and Andy co-created and produced many other television situation comedies. Susan is the author of the comedic novel, When We’re in Public, Pretend You Don’t Know Me: Surviving Your Daughter's Adolescence So You Don't Look Like an Idiot and She Still Talks to You, published in 2003.

At Harvard, Susan further explored her interest in writing and believed she potentially wanted a career out of it. She hoped to exercise her writing in humor, which she favored, and did so by becoming an editor of the Harvard Lampoon. which includes passages from many Hollywood comedy writers before their careers took off. Eventually, writing for the Harvard Lampoon inspired her to branch out. She began freelance writing for a few years, then made her way to Hollywood.

Career

Her first big hit was her work on the popular sitcom, Family Ties (1982–1989). In four years, Susan worked her way from story editor up to producer. Borowitz attributes her success and learning of the sitcom production trade to her mentor, Gary David Goldberg (the creator of Family Ties). She learned many things behind the scenes, such as directing and editing, but also the importance of set design and the visual factors that tie together to create a successful show. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air resulted in a change of pop culture with its popularity, influencing America on the vast lifestyles of all races. It also successfully started many careers for other African American people inspiring networks and writers to further incorporate lead stars as being African American. It contains advice from child psychologist, Dr. Ava Siegler, as well as some of Borowitz's personal experiences in addition to experiences of other mothers.