This page uses content from the Ken Kwapis biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

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

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's mixed theatrical features with TV work. 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. 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.
• Kwapis went to the prominent high school, Saint Louis University High School, in St. Louis, MO.

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

• License to Wed (completed shooting in July 2006; currently editing)
• I'm Fine!: A Really Helpful Guide to the First 100 Days After Your Breakup (in development)
• 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

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.