Ross Katz

Ross Katz

Ross Katz (born May 19, 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American film producer, screenwriter and film director. Prior to becoming a producer, Katz was a commercial rock DJ on 94 WYSP FM in Philadelphia. He got his start in movies working as a grip on Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, then interned at Good Machine eventually becoming Ted Hope's assistant. It was Hope who encouraged Katz to try his hand at producing. His first effort was Jim Fall's Trick. The film was one of the early independents to explore homosexual cinema treated as romantic comedy. Next he co-executive produced, along with Ted Hope & Anne Carey, an HBO television mini-series of Moisés Kaufman's play The Laramie Project. The mini-series version of The Laramie Project was adapted by Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard. The piece is based on more than 200 interviews they conducted while there. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his homophobic killers. The mini-series mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of "Angels in America" a year after Shephard's death.

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