Barry O'Brien

Barry O'Brien is a writer and producer working in television, and one of the creators of the hugely successful Disney Channel original comedy "Hannah Montana." He got his start as a writer, penning two episodes of the classic sitcom hit "Happy Days" in 1981, along with an episode each of its sister sitcoms, "Laverne & Shirley" and "Joanie Loves Chachi," in 1982. After writing three episodes of the ABC romance series "The Love Boat" from 1984 to '86, O'Brien landed his first major writing gig, on the animated family version of the comedy, "Ghostbusters." He contributed writing to all 65 episodes of the single-season series. He proceeded to write for various animated series over the next few years, and then in 1987 was back writing for live action, most notably for the goofy sitcom "Perfect Strangers," about a strongly-accented foreigner who moves in with his cynical, tightly-wound cousin. O'Brien produced many episodes in addition to writing for the series until 1993. While the remainder of the 1990s was rather modest for O'Brien, he made a huge impact in his next decade: he wrote and produced the drama "Judging Amy," he wrote and was a supervising producer for the hit crime-mystery "CSI: Miami," and he co-created perhaps his biggest project, "Hannah Montana," which he also wrote for; he also co-wrote the script for the 2009 movie version of that franchise.