Paul Kurta

Paul Kurta began his career in film and television production in New York City. Kurta worked as a freelance Production Manager and Producer of commercials and documentaries until 1980-81 when he produced two seasons of the syndicated mystery/comedy series Tales Of The Unexpected for the academy award winning director/writer, Bert Salzman. Kurta's first feature assignment, "Q" The Winged Serpent, would be one of six collaborations (Blind Alley, Special Effects, Island of The Alive, The Stuff and Original Gangsters) with the legendary writer-director Larry Cohen. Kurta wrote (with Kevin Scott) and produced (with Mitchell Maxwell), the feature adaptation of Kevin Wade's hit play, Key Exchange, directed by Barnet Kellman. On location in Iowa, Kurta produced (with Fredrick Zollo), Miles From Home which starred Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson and John Malkovich. The film, written by Chris Gerolmo and directed by Gary Sinise, was an Official U.S. Selection to Cannes in 1988. That same year, Kurta line-produced the Ace Award winning film, Long Gone for HBO which marked the first of five collaborations with writer-director, Martin Davidson. (Heart Of Dixie, Hard Promises, Lovers Of Deceit, Looking For An Echo) Next Kurta co-produced She Said No and Joshua's Heart, two movies for television with Producers Steve White and Barry Bernardi. For Producer Steve Tisch, Kurta produced the award-winning HBO film, Afterburn, starring Laura Dern. For Warner Brothers and Producers Arnon Milchan, Alan Riche and Tony Ludwig, Kurta co-produced and was the second unit director on Empire Records. Directed by Allan Moyle, the film became a cult classic and starred relative unknowns Renee Zellwegger, Liv Tyler and Anthony LaPaglia. Before re-uniting with Producers Riche-Ludwig on the Sony comedy, Tomcats by Greg Poirier, Producers Mark Burg and Jeremy Tannenbaum asked Kurta to line-produce John Grisham's The Gingerbread Man for the legendary director Robert Altman. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Daryl Hannah, Tom Berenger and Embeth Davidtz, the effects-driven film was shot entirely on location in Savannah, Georgia. For Executive Producer/writer/director Kenneth Johnson and Fox Television, Kurta produced two popular Alien Nation MOWs; Body And Soul, Millenium. Then again for Fox, Kurta produced Rise And Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story, starring Peter Berg and directed by Michael Dinner. Showtime's, Going To California proved to be one of Kurta's most challenging and gratifying production accomplishments: 20 consecutive episodes "on the road" in five states: Creator/writer, Scott Rosenberg, Exec.Producer Jeff Melvoin and writers Andre Nemic and Josh Applebaum. By 2004, Executive Producers Rob Thomas and Joel Silver invited Kurta to produce the pilot and critically successful first season of Veronica Mars starring Kristin Bell and Enrico Colantoni. Kurta traveled to New Orleans to produce the pilot for the F/X hit show The Riches. Created by Dmitri Lipkin (Hung) and directed by Carl Franklin, the show starred Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. Playing Albuquerque for Pittsburgh, Kurta then produced the critically acclaimed Syfy Network mini-series, The Lost Room starring Peter Krause and Julianna Margulies. Kurta re-teamed with Executive Producer Joel Silver and creators Ron Koslow and Trevor Munson to produce the pilot and first and only season of Moonlight for CBS and Warner's. In 2009 Kurta produced the Mental Health Advocacy documentary, Speaking For Ourselves. Kurta also was the Executive Producer of Cherry, an independent feature shot in Michigan for writer/director Jeffrey Fine. The film stars Laura Allen, Kyle Gallner and Britt Robertson. In 2010 Kurta produced another CBS pilot The Odds for Exec. Producers Joel Silver. He also produced the AMC pilot Hell On Wheels and subsequently all 57 episodes. Kurta produced the pilot Pan Am for ABC and the second season of Kingdom for Direct TV's Audience Networks. He produced the feature film An Interview With God with David Strathairn and Brenton Thwaites and recently produced the ABC Network pilot Grand Hotel. Paul Kurta is married to Jacqueline Burnham Kurta and has two daughters, Michelle and Roxanne.