Ben Wasserstein has entered a first look deal at Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions.
Under the deal, Wasserstein will pursue and develop new comedy and drama series, limited series and films for Eden’s multi-year deal with Apple TV+. He will work alongside Heather Karpas, who joined Eden in 2020 after previously working at ICM Partners.
Before entering this role, Wasserstein had been working at HBO since 2016. He entered the company as vice president of original programming, eventually rising to senior vice president. During his tenure, he oversaw the development and production of comedy series including “Barry,” “The
Rehearsal,” “Somebody Somewhere,” “Los Espookys,” “Avenue 5,” “Veep,” “Divorce,” “Sally4Ever” and
“Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Before HBO, he worked at Fair Harbor Productions as vice president of development. There, projects under his purview included HBO’s “Looking” and “Bored To Death” as well as SundanceTV’s “The Red
Road.” And before Fair Harbor, he was a journalist, most recently at The New Republic as editorial director.
“Ben is one of the most talented creative executives of his generation,” said Plepler, the former HBO chairman and CEO who founded Eden in 2020. “I’m thrilled he’ll be bringing his superb eye for talent and material to Eden.”
Eden has been behind Apple TV+’s “Blackbird,” “Lincoln’s Dilemma” and “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” with an upcoming series about Benjamin Franklin starring Michael Douglas. The company is also currently working on Dennis Lehane’s “Firebug” and developing other projects with Lehane, Emilia di Girolamo (“Three Pines”), Fanny Herrero (“Call My Agent!”), Taffy Brodesser-Akner (“Fleischman is in Trouble”), Lara Shapiro (“The Americans”) and Gideon Raff (“Homeland”).