Laurie Zaks

Laurie Zaks
Zaks at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Plainview, New York
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Television producer
Years active	1982–present
Spouse(s)	Jeff Horn
Children	1

Laurie A. Zaks is an American television producer. She has been the President of Television at Mandeville Films since 2013. From 1981 to 1984, she worked behind the scenes of NBC's Saturday Night Live. She served as an executive producer of ABC's drama series Castle from 2009 until 2013, and is currently an executive producer for the true crime anthology series Wicked City and the political drama series The Family, both for ABC.

Zaks previously worked as Vice President of the Comedy Department at Comedy Central, where she was one of the executives originally hired to launch the network in New York City; Vice President of Series Programs at CBS, where she oversaw series such as Everybody Loves Raymond; and Senior Vice President of Series Programs at UPN, where she oversaw series such as Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Following her stints at these companies, she became President of Armyan Bernstein's Beacon Television. At Beacon Television, Zaks developed the pilot and served as executive producer of Castle for the ABC network. She was executive producer of the series from its first season in 2009, until its fifth season in 2013, when she left to work for Mandeville.

Zaks launched her own production company, Second Season, in 2012. She will serve as executive producer on two of ABC's upcoming series, Wicked City (2015) and The Family (2016), both of which will premiere in the 2015–16 television season.