Joshua Safran is an American television screenwriter and executive producer.
Education
Safran attended the Horace Mann School prior to graduating from NYU Tisch with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in playwriting. He has stated he is Jewish.
Career
Safran was an executive producer and writer on The CW television series Gossip Girl, for which he was the showrunner for the series' fourth and fifth seasons, and was the executive producer and showrunner for the second season of the NBC television series Smash. He shared writing credits with director Shana Feste for the screenplay of the 2014 remake of the 1981 film Endless Love.
Safran was the creator, executive producer and showrunner (seasons one and two) of the ABC thriller drama series Quantico. Recently, he was credited as the creator, executive producer and showrunner for the Netflix musical television series Soundtrack.
He served as creator, executive producer, and showrunner of the 2021 sequel series Gossip Girl for HBO Max.
In recently, Safran created Line of Fire, which premiered on NBC on September 21, 2026.
Filmography
Film
| Title | Year | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Director | Producer | |||
| Endless Love | 2014 | Yes | No | No | |
Television
The numbers in directing and writing credits refer to the number of episodes.
| Title | Year | Credited as | Network | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | Director | Writer | Showrunner | Executive producer | ||||
| Gossip Girl | 2007–12 | No | No | Yes (18) | Yes | Yes | The CW | |
| Smash | 2013 | No | No | Yes (3) | Yes | Yes | NBC | |
| Quantico | 2015–18 | Yes | No | Yes (7) | Yes | Yes | ABC | Also consultant (season 3) |
| Soundtrack | 2019 | Yes | Yes (1) | Yes (3) | Yes | Yes | Netflix | |
| Gossip Girl | 2021–23 | Developer | Yes (5) | Yes (1) | Yes | Yes | HBO Max | |
| Line of Fire | 2026–present | Yes | TBA | Yes | Yes | Yes | NBC | |
