Mini Biography: Edward Burns was born on January 28th 1968 in Woodside, Queens New York. The second of three children of Irish Catholic immigrants. His father Edward J. Burns was a Police Sergeant and active spokesperson for the New York Police Dept. His mother Molly, worked for the Federal Aviation Administration at Kennedy Airport. Edward, along with his older sister Mary and brother Brian were raised in Long Island. He attended Catholic Chaminade High School before transferring to a public high school. He went on to attend The State University of New York at Albany and Oneonta College in New York to major in English Literature. During his junior year he transferred to Hunter College in Manhattan, studied filmmaking and began writing the first of many short films.

Upon graduating and through his father's connections secured a job at Entertainment Tonight in 1993 working at as a "go-fer". There he was able to finance and begin working on The Brothers McMullen (1995), A comedy focusing on life's trials and tribulations facing three Irish-Catholic siblings. Shot primarily in his parents' Long Island home, with a cast of unknowns including Burns himself and his then-girlfriend 'Maxine Bahns'. The feature was filmed over eight months' time with a budget reported of about $ 30,000. Rejected by a series of distributors, The Brothers McMullen (1995) bowed at Sundance, after giving Robert Redford a copy of the film while working on ET. In 1995 his film won the festival's Grand Jury Prize, becoming one of the most successful independent efforts of the year. He then sold the film to 20th Century Fox's Searchlight Pictures.