'Nova''s Swartz named Discovery VP, development and production

Howard Swartz is Discovery Channel’s new VP of development and production.

Swartz, who most recently was executive producer of PBS’ Nova, will primarily oversee Curiosity, a series created by Discovery’s founder, John Hendricks. He’ll report to Simon Andreae, senior vice president, development and production, and be based in Los Angeles.

He had been Nova’s EP since January 2010. Prior to that, he was with National Geographic Channel, where he oversaw Nat Geo’s Explorer series, as well as more than 100 other programs. While there, he won Emmys for producing Five Years on Mars, Inside the Living Body and Incredible Human Machine.

From 2002 to 2006, Swartz was co-founder and executive producer at his own production company, BellaSwartz Productions, where he developed, produced, directed and wrote non-fiction programs for Discovery, Science, History and NatGeo.