Eric Overmyer, born on 25 September 1951 in Boulder, Colorado, USA, is an American writer and producer. He is a writer and producer for The Wire. He has also worked with The Wire creator David Simon on the earlier series Homicide: Life on the Street. Following The Wire they collaborated again on the series Treme. Overmyer has also worked extensively on Law & Order and the related series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He has gone on to develop and produce Bosch and Bosch: Legacy for Amazon studios.
Biography[]
He graduated as a theater major from Reed College in 1973. He credits his time at the college for helping him find and claim his identity as a writer.
Overmyer wrote for the NBC crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street from 1996 to 1999. He joined the crew as a writer for the fourth season. He became a consulting producer for the sixth season in fall 1997. He returned as a supervising producer for the seventh and final season in fall 1998. The series was based on the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by The Wire creator David Simon. Simon also worked as a writer and producer on the later seasons on the show and the two became friends.
Overmyer joined the crew of Law & Order as a consulting producer and writer for the twelfth season in 2001. He became a co-executive producer for the later part of the season. He remained in this role until he was promoted to executive producer for the fifteenth season in fall 2004. He left the show after the conclusion of the fifteenth season.
Overmyer joined the crew of The Wire as a consulting producer and writer for the fourth season in 2006. Overmyer wrote the teleplays for the episodes "Margin of Error" and "Misgivings". from stories he co-wrote with producer Ed Burns. Overmyer was hired to replace George Pelecanos as a full-time writer and producer. Simon has said that he was impressed with Overmyer's writing, particularly in synthesising the story for "Margin of Error" as the episode is the height of the show's political storyline but must also progress other plot threads. As a member of the fourth season writing staff, Overmyer has been credited as overseeing the domestic storyline of Jimmy McNulty and "smartly fleshing out" some of his key scenes. Overmyer left the crew at the end of the fourth season. Overmyer and the writing staff won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2008 ceremony and the 2007 Edgar Award for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for their work on the fourth season.
Overmyer collaborated with Simon again on the HBO drama Treme. They co-created the series which is about post-Katrina New Orleans. Overmyer lives part-time in New Orleans and used his experience in navigating the "ornate oral tradition" of the city's stories. The show focuses on a working-class neighborhood and is smaller in scope than The Wire. Production for the first season began in November 2009 and Overmyer worked on the show until it concluded with a fourth season in 2013.
In the hiatus between the third and fourth seasons of Treme Overmyer joined the crew of the HBO drama series Boardwalk Empire. He served as a co-executive producer for the fourth season until production recommenced on Treme. On Boardwalk Empire Overmyer reunited with his colleague from The Wire Dennis Lehane. He also worked with the writers Steve Turner and Jennifer Ames.
Overmyer worked as a writer and producer for the HBO drama series The Affair in 2014. The series starred Dominic West who played McNulty in The Wire.
Overmyer was a writer and executive producer for the National Geographic miniseries Saints & Strangers in 2015. The show details the voyage of the Mayflower and the first interactions between settlers and Native Americans. Overmyer wrote the opening part and the fourth and final part of the miniseries. He worked with Chip Johannessen and Walon Green on the first part.
Overmyer developed the Amazon original series Bosch based on the series of crime novels by Michael Connelly. The project reunited him with The Wire actors Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick. A pilot was produced in 2013. The show was ordered to series after being released through the Amazon streaming service in February 2014. For his writing staff Overmyer assembled several writers he had worked with before - Pelecanos from The Wire and Treme, Turner and Ames from Boardwalk Empire and William N. Fordes & Tom Smuts from Law & Order. Smuts worked as a supervising producer and writer while Fordes was a consulting producer and writer. Overmyer also brought in Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider who had written for Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire (though not at the same time as Overmyer). Frolov and Schneider worked as consulting producers and writers for the first season of Bosch. Connelly also joined the writers room for the show. The first season was shot throughout 2014 and released on February 13, 2015.
Overmyer remained part of the crew of Bosch throughout its seven season run, until the show concluded in 2021. Overmyer remained the show runner in the second season in 2016 and Connelly continued to work as a writer for the series. Frolov and Schneider returned as consulting producers for the second season. Smuts and Fordes were promoted to co-executive producers for the second season. Overmyer also brought in Tom Bernardo as a regular writer.
The third season of Bosch saw significant overhaul in the writers room with Smuts, Fordes, Frolov and Schneider all leaving their roles as writer/producers for the series. Overmyer brought in Daniel Pyne as an Executive Producer and Writer, Elle Johnson as a Co-Executive Producer and Writer and Jeffrey Fiskin as a Consulting Producer and Writer. Johnson had worked with Overmyer on the earlier series Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. Bernardo and Connelly returned to the writing staff.
For the fourth season of Bosch in 2018 Overmyer handed over show runner duties to Pyne and served solely as an Executive Producer. Johnson and Fiskin returned as writer/producers. John Mankiewicz joined the staff as an Executive Producer and writer. Bernardo and Connelly continued to write for the series.
Overmyer served as the showrunner for the third season of Amazon alternate history series The Man in the High Castle in 2018. The writers room saw him reunited with Chris Collins from The Wire and Fordes from Law & Order and Bosch. Overmyer left the crew after the third season. Treme writer Lolis Eric Elie was hired for the fourth and final season of The Man in the High Castle.
Overmyer rejoined the writers room for the fifth season of Bosch in 2019. He remained an Executive Producer for the series. Pyne also remained part of the crew as a writer and Executive Producer. Johnson was promoted to writer and Executive Producer. Fiskin returned as a consulting producer and writer. Bernardo became a supervising producer and remained a writer for the fifth season. Shaz Bennett and Katie Pyne also contributed episodes in the fifth season.
Overmyer returned as show runner for the sixth season of Bosch in 2020. He was rejoined by Daniel Pyne, Fiskin, Bernardo, Bennett and Katie Pyne. Alex Meenehan and Osokwe Vasquez were new writers for the sixth season. Connelly once again contributed an episode to the series. Pyne left the show at the end of the sixth season.
Overmyer remained the show runner for the seventh and final season of Bosch in 2021. Fiskin, Vasquez and Meenehan all returned to write for the show. Elle Johnson also rejoined the crew as an Executive Producer and writer. Bernardo was promoted to Co-Executive Producer but did not contribute any scripts for the seventh season. Elie joined the crew as a Co-Executive Producer and writer. Benjamin Pitts, Jessica Kivnik and Mitzi Roberts also joined Overmyer's writing staff for the final season.
Bosch was followed by a spin-off series named Bosch: Legacy in 2022. Overmyer developed the series with Connelly and Bernardo. He served as the show runner for the first season and was an Executive Producer.