[9] When Schwartz was seven years old, he won an essay-writing contest at Summer camp for a review of the recently released movie Gremlins; the opening line was "Spielberg has done it again" and stood out amongst the other submissions.

[7][12] In 1995, Schwartz attended film school to study screen and television writing at the University of Southern California (USC).

He became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, as well as president of the chapter, and got to see what it's like "behind the gated communities and big mansions" of Southern California which would later provide fodder for his pilot The O.C.

[13][14][15] While at USC, Schwartz tried out stand-up comedy at a talent show in front of five hundred people but was "disabused of [the] notion very quickly.

[18] In 1997, Sony's TriStar Pictures bought his first screenplay in a bidding war for a deal guaranteeing $550,000 and worth up to $1 million while he was still a junior in college.

[19] Schwartz got an agent and subsequently wrote a TV pilot called Brookfield for ABC/Disney while he was still studying at USC.

[10] Schwartz and Bob DeLaurentis collaborated on supervising and approving the editors' work on each episode in post-production.

[29][30] He sold a pilot to Fox called Alphabet City, a drama about a New York tabloid but it was never produced.

[32][33] In 2005, Paramount signed Schwartz to adapt and direct John Green's young adult novel Looking for Alaska with producer Mark Waters.

[34] It was revealed in late August 2006 that Schwartz would develop and executive produce a drama pilot for The CW, based on the popular book series Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar.

In 2007, Schwartz signed a three-year, seven-figure overall deal with Warner Bros. TV to write and exec produce with Chris Fedak an hourlong high-concept action comedy called Chuck for NBC about twenty-something spies and was described in press releases as "in the vein of Grosse Pointe Blank".

[39] In Spring 2009, Schwartz launched "Rockville CA", a web-series on TheWB.com that follows young 20-somethings at a fictional rock club in Los Angeles.

[40] There are twenty indie band performances in the episodes, including Lykke Li, The Kooks and Kaiser Chiefs.

[41] It was also announced that Schwartz would write and direct Bright Lights, Big City for MGM, based on the iconic debut novel by Jay McInerney.

In January 2012, it was announced The CW had ordered a pilot for new drama titled Cult, result of collaboration with Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein.

He also developed several adaptations of popular properties, such as Runaways for Marvel, a reboot of Dynasty and Nancy Drew for CW.