Hurwitz was born in 1963 to a Jewish family in Anaheim, California. In 1976, when Hurwitz was 12, he co-founded a chocolate-chip cookie business, called the Chipyard on Balboa Boulevard in Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach, California, in a former taco place, with his older brother, Michael, and his father, Mark. The Chipyard is still in operation in Boston. He graduated from Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, California, and from Georgetown University in 1985 with a double major in English and theology.

Hurwitz worked on several sitcoms in the 1980s and 1990s, including Nurses, The Golden Girls, The Golden Palace, The John Larroquette Show, The Ellen Show and the Michael J. Fox-produced pilot Hench at Home. He created Everything’s Relative, a midseason comedy starring Jeffrey Tambor and Jill Clayburgh for NBC in 1999.

Hurwitz is married to actress Mary Jo Keenen. They have two daughters: May Asami, born in 2000, and Phoebe Hitomi born in 2002. The name of Arrested Development character “Maeby” was the result of combining the names of Hurwitz’s daughters.

Hurwitz was chosen by Ron Howard to create a sitcom about a rich dysfunctional family, which eventually turned into Arrested Development. Hurwitz wrote the pilot in 2002, which was filmed in March 2003. Fox added the show to its schedule in May. Despite laudatory reviews by television critics, Arrested Development received low ratings throughout its three-season run. In July 2004, the show was nominated for 7 Primetime Emmy Awards and won 5, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.

After seven years off the air, Arrested Development returned for a fifteen-episode fourth season on the online movie and television streaming service Netflix on May 26, 2013. After yet another multi-year hiatus in which there was uncertainty of future seasons being developed, Netflix and the show’s producers announced the development of a fifth season. The release was heralded by a re-edited twenty-two-episode version of the fourth season titled Season Four Remix: Fateful Consequences, released on Netflix on May 4, 2018. The fifth season consists of sixteen episodes, 8 of which were released simultaneously on May 29, 2018. The remaining 8 episodes were released simultaneously on March 15, 2019.

Hurwitz signed a multiyear deal with Netflix in 2014. He is executive producing Flaked starring Will Arnett and produced/co-created Lady Dynamite starring Maria Bamford for the network.

Hurwitz starred as “Koogler” in the Community episode “App Development and Condiments” (episode 8, season 5), which aired on March 6, 2014. He reprised the role in “Modern Espionage” (episode 11, season 6), which aired on May 19, 2015.