Ed Solomon

Ed Solomon became a professional writer at age 19 when he sold a joke in the back room of a comedy club to comedian Jimmie Walker. By the time he was 21, while still a student at UCLA, he was a staff writer on the ABC sitcom Laverne and Shirley — the youngest person to ever join the WGA. After graduating UCLA with a degree in economics, he went on to become a staff writer on Showtime’s It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, an early cable hit that was often experimental and groundbreaking in its approach to television comedy. With writing partner Chris Matheson, he developed the characters Bill & Ted, first as an improve sketch — and then in the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The film put them on the map as studio feature screenwriters. The worldwide hit generated a sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and the characters became so identified with the actors that Keanu Reeves has said, “When I die, my tombstone will read, ‘Here lies Ted.’” The third Bill & Ted movie, “Bill & Ted Face the Music” is in development with a script by Matheson & Solomon and Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter set to reprise their roles. As a solo screenwriter, Solomon entered the A-List with the script for the first Men in Black, setting his signature style of visually innovative, intelligent, character-based comedy. In 2016, after decades writing mega-budget studio science fiction, action and comedy, Ed turned to drama, teaming with director Steven Soderbergh and HBO for the original interactive long-form branching narrative Mosaic, starring Sharon Stone, which will be released first as an app in November 2017, and then as a limited-run series on HBO in January 2018. Ed is currently writing a second project in the branching narrative format for producers Soderbergh and Casey Silver.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]