As a student at Northwestern University, Larry Brody majored in English and honed his craft by writing numerous short stories, poetry, and essays. With a passion for science fiction, he began writing in the genre and, by the time he graduated, was selling stories to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and various men's magazines on a regular basis.
After graduating, Brody made a significant career detour by attending Law School, but he quit after one year and enrolled at the University of Iowa, renowned for its Writers Workshop. During his first school year, he sold his first novel, which gave him the confidence to move to Los Angeles in 1968 with his first wife.
The young couple faced a tough adjustment, emotionally and financially, with Brody's wife taking a full-time teaching job while he struggled to finish his next novel and network with industry professionals. However, his life took a turn for the better when he met Sammy Jackson, star of the recently cancelled series "No Time for Sergeants," in his apartment building.
Painfully shy at the time, Brody avoided Jackson, but the two eventually struck up a friendship that would launch Brody's career. Encouraged by Jackson, Brody worked tirelessly on a twenty-page short story that would become the basis for Jackson's comeback show, "Cornpone & Honey."
The story, about a cynical cartoonist who becomes the caretaker of his neighbor's five-year-old daughter, Honey, after her parents die in a car crash, caught the attention of producer Jerry Katzman, who set up a meeting with Brody. Katzman had a new project in development, a film titled "The Rise and Fall of a Rock and Roll Singer," starring Jim Morrison, and wanted Brody to co-write the script with Arthur Dreifuss.
Although the project was ultimately cancelled due to Morrison's refusal to shave his beard for the role, Brody's script received positive feedback, and his agent, Sylvia Hirsch, used it as a sample to get him into the television writing business. Starting as a freelancer on the show "Here Come the Brides," Brody became one of the most in-demand writers in television by the early 1970s.
Brody went on to produce the NBC series "Police Story" and other shows, and established himself as a strong believer in the social responsibility of both artists and the media. He has since founded TVWriter.Com, a highly regarded and visited television writing site, where he shares his experience and insight into the business and artistry of TV writing.
In the summer of 2002, Brody moved to St. Joe, Arkansas, to establish the Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, a non-profit charitable corporation dedicated to the advancement of the arts. He has written numerous books, including novels, poetry collections, and nonfiction books, and has won several awards for his work, including the Humanitas Certificate and the Population Institute Award.
Brody is currently a regular columnist for "Movie Scope" magazine and writes the syndicated newspaper column and blog "Live! From Paradise!" about the life of a city writer who moves to the country.
