Michael Hirschorn

Michael Hirschorn is the Emmy-award winning founder and owner of Ish Entertainment, a three-year-old production company based in New York and L.A. that produces series for multiple networks and digital outlets. Ish currently has more than a half-dozen series in production, including "Styled by June," which premiered this month on VH1; "Brooklyn 11223," which premieres this spring on Oxygen. "All About Aubrey" recently completed its first season on Oxygen; "I Do Over" recently aired on WE, where "Fix My Family" will air later this year. New series are in production currently for Oxygen and Style. And more than two dozen projects are in some stage of production for numerous outlets, including MTV, BBC America, Lifetime, Sundance, and CBS Distribution. Under its recent overall with MTV Networks, Ish produced several series for MTV: "Gone Too Far," an 8-part documentary project about youth and drug addiction that starred the recently deceased Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein; "Road To Redemption," a series that followed the rapper T.I. during his year before serving a jail term for guns possession; "The Money and Power," a series starring the rapper 50 Cent in which he gave street advice to aspiring entrepreneurs; and several seasons of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" for domestic (MTV) and international markets. "My Antonio," a reality dating show starring Antonio Sabato Jr., aired in 2009 on VH1.

Ish Entertainment is an investor in and production partner for Iconic Entertainment, where Hirschorn serves as co-founder and chief creative officer. Under YouTube's recent made-for-web initiative, Iconic, either alone or in conjunction with partners, secured commitments for three channels: MyIsh, a music discovery channel; 123UnoDosTres, a Latin youth culture and music channel; and Life + Times, a joint-venture with Jay-Z. Additionally, Ish Digital is producing several projects for other made-for-web channels and providing video content for Dow Jones's new YouTube channel.

Previously, Hirschorn headed programming at VH1, where over a span of four years he doubled ratings, contributing to a more than tripling in revenue for the network. Hirschorn was responsible for thousands of hours of programming, scripted and non-scripted, and set-up a documentary shingle, "VH1 Rock Docs," that produced multiple award-winning documentaries about music and youth culture, current and past. "DMC: My Adoption Journey" won Hirschorn an Emmy for best documentary in 2008. Additionally, he was an executive producer of "The U.S. Versus John Lennon," a theatrical documentary that was released in the U.S. and internationally by Lionsgate.

A former journalist and magazine editor (New York Magazine, Esquire, Spin), he has continued to explore the revolutionary impact of digital media as contributing editor at the Atlantic Monthly. Recent columns suggested futures for print media, television, and music, and he was widely excoriated in 2009 for painting a doom-and-gloom picture of the future of the New York Times that now is considered conventional wisdom and served as inspiration of the theatrical documentary "Page One".