Ted Katz was born in Philadelphia in 1937. He holds the bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College, and the master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. While a Fellow of Harvard University, Katz studied with Mirko Basaldella at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, and with George Dergalis and Jason Berger at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. From 1961-1965, Katz studied, on scholarship, with John Groth, Harry Sternberg, Mario Cooper and Robert Brackman at The Art Students' League in New York. At the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, he concentrated on drawing from the human figure.

Under grants from such institutions as the Ford Foundation, the Carnage Corporation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, Ted Katz has created model programs in the visual arts throughout the United States. His publications include the textbook series, Understanding and Creating Art published by McGraw-Hill and the highly regarded Museums and Schools puclished by University of Pennsylvania.

The paintings of Ted Katz have been shown at university and commercial galleries throughout the United States and Europe, frequently by invitation. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Villanova University; Pacific University; Moore College of Art; Philadelphia College of Art; Salem College; Millersville University and Harvard University; and at Galerie P.B. van Voorst van Beest, The Netherlands; A.M. Adler Fine Arts, New York City; Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston; Denenberg Fine Arts, Inc., San Francisco; Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia; Butters Gallery, Ltd., Portland; and David Yarborough, Los Angeles.

Ted Katz is represented in university, corporate and private collections in the United States and Europe.