Silvio Horta (born 1974) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
most notable for adapting the South American
telenovelaA telenovela is a limited-run television serial melodrama popular in the Americas, comprising a great part of its production budget. The word combines tele, short for television, and novela, a word that Latin literary studies associate with medium-span romances. Telenovelas are essentially soap...
Yo Soy Betty La Fea into the current
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
series,
Ugly BettyUgly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series created by Silvio Horta, which premiered on The American Broadcasting Company on September 28, 2006. The series revolves around Betty Suarez, an unglamorous and good-natured girl, and her incongruous job at the ultra-chic New York City...
. Horta serves as head writer and executive producer on the series.
Horta, a
Cuban American
, was born in
Miami, FloridaMiami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 424,662 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the...
. He was a popular performer and playwright in high school, attending both International Baccalaureate Theater, and Experimental Theater programs at Coral Gables Senior in Miami.
Silvio Horta (born 1974) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
most notable for adapting the South American
telenovelaA telenovela is a limited-run television serial melodrama popular in the Americas, comprising a great part of its production budget. The word combines tele, short for television, and novela, a word that Latin literary studies associate with medium-span romances. Telenovelas are essentially soap...
Yo Soy Betty La Fea into the current
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
series,
Ugly BettyUgly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series created by Silvio Horta, which premiered on The American Broadcasting Company on September 28, 2006. The series revolves around Betty Suarez, an unglamorous and good-natured girl, and her incongruous job at the ultra-chic New York City...
. Horta serves as head writer and executive producer on the series.
Horta, a
Cuban American
, was born in
Miami, FloridaMiami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 424,662 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the...
. He was a popular performer and playwright in high school, attending both International Baccalaureate Theater, and Experimental Theater programs at Coral Gables Senior in Miami. He graduated in 1992.
He has written many unproduced screenplays including "Even Exchange" and "The Furies" (with Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy). Prior to
Ugly Betty, Horta wrote the screenplay for the 1998 teen satirical hit slasher film
Urban LegendUrban Legend is a 1998 horror film starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart and Robert Englund. The film is based on the premise that a killer is using the methods of death described in certain urban legends as a means to kill his victims....
and he can be heard on the DVD commentary. Before
Legend, he was working as a perfume spritzer.
Horta was also creator of two short lived sci-fi television shows
Jake 2.0Jake 2.0 is an American television program originally broadcast on UPN in 2003. The program was canceled in mid-January 2004 due to low ratings, leaving four episodes unaired in the United States. However in the UK all the episodes were played out on Sky One. The series is currently being aired on...
(starring
Christopher GorhamChristopher Gorham is an American actor.- Early life :Gorham was born an only child in Fresno, California. He attended high school at Roosevelt School of the Arts and graduated from UCLA with a BA in Film & Theater arts. While in college, he participated in many sports including martial arts,...
, who would later join the cast of
Ugly Betty,) and
The Chronicle: News From The EdgeThe Chronicle is the name of a short-lived television series on the Sci Fi cable channel. The series is somewhat influenced by previous television shows such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The X-Files and loosely based on the News from the Edge series of novels by Mark Sumner...
. In 2007, he accepted the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series "Ugly Betty", stating "Like most of us up here, Betty is an immigrant and The American Dream is alive and well and in reach of anybody who wants it".
Horta started the production company "Silent H Productions", so named because he found that people in the United States always pronounced the silent H at the start of his last name.
Horta is openly
gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
; he
came outComing out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people disclosing their sexual orientation and gender identity...
to his family at nineteen.