Nat Geo Sets First Scripted Series ‘Genius’ for April 25

National Geographic’s first scripted series Genius starts April 25 and features Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein. The series comes from Fox 21 Television Studios and is executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. 

The series is based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe. Genius tracks Einstein’s rise from humble origins as “an imaginative, rebellious thinker, through his struggles to be recognized by the establishment, to his global celebrity status as the man who unlocked the mysteries of the cosmos with his theory of relativity. Delving deeper, the series follows Einstein’s alternately exhilarating emotions and heartlessness in dealing with his closest personal relationships, including his children, his two wives and the various women with whom he cheats on them,” according to Nat Geo. 

Imagine Entertainment and OddLot Entertainment are also producers on the series. 

Ken Biller is the showrunner, executive producer and writer.

From OddLot, Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane are executive producers. 

Sam Sokolow and Jeff Cooney from EUE/Sokolow are also executive producers, as is Francie Calfo.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.