Carl Kurlander is a screenwriter (“St. Elmo’s Fire”),  TV writer/producer (“Saved by the Bell”) and award winning documentary and docu-series film producer (A Shot to Save the World, Burden of Genius, The Chair)  who has divided his time between working in film and TV industry in Los Angeles and teaching in his hometown at the University of Pittsburgh and doing work in the non-profit sector using media for advocacy on important social issues.

His journey out to Hollywood began when he won a freak Duke University/MCA-Universal Studios internship to the head of the studio based on a short story “St. Elmo’s Fire” and an essay saying how he wanted to make a film about his generation and aspiring to make movies that might make a difference.  Instead, twenty years later, Carl felt a bit like Holden Caufield’s older brother who wrote one good short story and sold out which led to Carl accepting a serendipitous journey to teach at the University of Pittsburgh for what he thought would be a one year Hollywood sabbatical.

That somehow led to Carl’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for a program on “What Should I Do With My Life?” which inspired the documentary “My Tale of Two Cities,” a story about the once great city of Pittsburgh struggle to comeback as well as Carl’s often Don Quixote attempts to help his hometown including co-founding a non-that helped make Pittsburgh a player in the entertainment business.  That film’s premiere help Carl fund innovative youth and media programs that gave undeserved young people opportunities in media.  He continues to teach as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh where he is the founding director of Pitt in LA and founding producer of the Pittsburgh Lens at Pitt’s Center of Creativity.