Ron Cowen & Daniel Lipman are the executive producers, creators and writers of the American version of the acclaimed British series, "Queer As Folk" for SHOWTIME. They were also the executive producers, creators and writers of the Emmy Award-winning drama series "Sisters," which ran for six seasons on NBC. The unique series, which was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, had a stellar cast that included Swoosie Kurtz, Sela Ward, George Clooney and Ashley Judd. Prior to that, Cowen & Lipman received an Emmy Award® for outstanding writing for their teleplay "An Early Frost," which they also associate produced. The highly acclaimed television drama about the devastation of AIDS on an American family starred Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Aidan Quinn and Sylvia Sidney. It won the coveted Peabody Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best TV Movie. They also wrote and co-produced NBC's "The Love She Sought (A Green Journey)" starring Angela Lansbury and Denholm Elliott, for which they won the Christopher Award, and were nominated for a Writers Guild Award for best teleplay.
In addition, Cowen wrote adaptations of Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," starring Eric Roberts, and Sherwood Anderson's "I'm A Fool," starring Ron Howard and Amy Irving for the PBS series, "The American Short Story," for which he won a Peabody Award.
Cowen & Lipman began their careers as playwrights at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' Conference in Waterford, Connecticut. Lipman's play, "Casanova and His Mother," was first performed there and later at St. Clement's Church in New York and the Berkshire Theatre Festival.
Cowen's first play, "Summertree," which was originally performed at the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, was subsequently produced by the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center in New York and starred Blythe Danner and David Birney, where it won the Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It was revived off-Broadway and also made into a film by Columbia Pictures starring Michael Douglas.
Lipman earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University's School of Fine Arts and was a recipient of a Shubert Fellowship as a playwright-in-residence at the University of Michigan's Professional Theatre Program. It was there that he earned his Master of Arts degree and his play, "Last Respects," won the Avery Hopwood Award for Drama.
Cowen is the recipient of a Wesleyan University Fellowship, an Associate Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and was the youngest member to be elected to the New Dramatists Committee.
