KEN KWAPIS

'Ken Kwapis' (born August 17, 1957) is an American film and television director and scriptwriter. He was born in Belleville, Illinois^[1], attended St. Louis University High School, studied film first at Northwestern University, then on the graduate level at USC School of Cinema-Television.^[2] Kwapis helped define the single-camera sitcom in the 1990s and 2000s.^[3]

Contents

Career history

Influences

Trivia

Select TV work

Theatrical film work

References

External links

Career history

His thesis film ''For Heaven's Sake'', a variation on a Mozart opera, won a Student Academy Award. He started making teen-oriented TV movies before working on acclaimed series such as ''The Larry Sanders Show''. Since then he has mixed theatrical features with TV work.^[4] In 2005, he directed his first feature-length film (''Sexual Life'') that was based on his own original screenplay.

Influences

Kwapis ran a film society while in college and his knowledge of film history is evident in his work. For example, ''Dunston Checks In'' is virtually an homage to Ernst Lubitsch.^[5] And ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' features a clip from Frank Borzage's ''Three Comrades''. In ''Sisterhood's DVD commentary Kwapis remarks on Borzage's influence on his work.

Trivia

★ Kwapis has a cameo in ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' as a piano player at a ballet recital.

Select TV work

★ ''The Office'' (US) (2005)

★ ''Watching Ellie'' (2002)

★ ''The Bernie Mac Show'' (2001)

★ ''Grounded for Life'' (2001)

★ ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000)

★ ''Freaks and Geeks'' (1999)

★ ''The Larry Sanders Show'' (1992)

Theatrical film work

★ ''He's Just Not That Into You'', for New Line, produced by and starring Drew Barrymore.[1] In production.

★ ''License to Wed'' (2007)

★ ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' (2005)

★ ''Sexual Life'' (2005)

★ ''The Beautician and the Beast'' (1997)

★ ''Dunston Checks In'' (1996)

★ ''He Said, She Said'' (1991, co-directed with Marisa Silver, whom he married soon after)

★ ''Vibes'' (1988)

★ ''Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird'' (1985)

★ ''The Beniker Gang'' (1985)

References

1. Before they were stars... Carla Keller Anderson
2. Notable Alumni
3. Big 'Mac' Todd Longwell
4.
5. Interview with director Ken Kwapis

External links

★

★ Ray Pride, "Where have the Grown-ups Gone?", ''Pride Unprejudiced'', 28 June 2005, http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/pride/2005/050628.html . An interview with Kwapis.