Kevin S. Bright (born 1954,
New York City) is an American television
executive producer and
director whose credits include
Dream On,
Friends and
Joey.
Bright started his professional career under the tutelage of his father, Jackie Bright. Born to a Jewish-American family, Bright attended the
East Side Hebrew Institute on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan. After graduating
magna cum laude from
Emerson College, he worked in New York with Joseph Cates, where he produced specials for
George Burns,
Johnny Cash,
David Copperfield, and
Dolly Parton.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1982, he started work in comedy programming such as
The History of White People in America and comedy specials starring
Robin Williams,
Martin Mull,
Harry Shearer,
Paul Shaffer, and
Merrill Markoe.
In 1993, Bright entered a partnership with
Marta Kauffman and
David Crane to form
Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and began a development deal with
Warner Brothers Television to produce the comedy series
Friends. He also directed sixty episodes of the series, including the series finale.
After
Friends, he went on to executive-produce the spinoff series
Joey with
Friends producers
Shana Goldberg-Meehan and
Scott Silveri.
Joey starred
Friends actor
Matt LeBlanc as the title character and featured
Jennifer Coolidge, also an
Emerson College attendee.
Joey was cancelled in May 2006 during its second season after a major ratings slump.
After Joey, Bright moved back to
Boston where he began working at his alma mater, Emerson College. Over the last three years at Emerson, Kevin executive produced three-sketch comedy shows,
Zebro: A Laugh Show and
Chocolate Cake City, and three original half-hour situation comedies,
Browne At Midnight,
Saturdays, and
Ground Floor. He also serves as an advisor to the EVVY Awards.
Kevin now teaches a series of television production classes in the Visual Media Arts department, and is helping to develop the program for Emerson's new LA Center, opening in 2013. Kevin also runs a diversity workshop for high school students through Emerson College. He is also working with
Perkins School for the Blind in
Watertown, MA, to develop a method of teaching television production to the blind.
Bright also directed a documentary in 2007 with Linda Feferman called Who Ordered Tax? about his father Jackie Bright who was an actor and vaudeville performer.
External links
Friends
DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Kevin
