Jethro Rothe-Kushel

Jethro Rothe-Kushel (born August 11, 1981) is an American producer for motion pictures, television, documentaries, and new media. As a former creative executive he has developed projects for WB, ABC, NBC, Fox, Sony Pictures, and Paramount. In addition to being selected as one of thirty most influential American thought leaders under the age of 30, he is known for his work on the Academy Awards, Frontline (U.S. TV series), and on twelve feature films.

Early life
Rothe-Kushel was born in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, California. His father is Jewish, and his mother, who is of half Mexican descent, is Protestant. At age 9, he started making his first music video and documentary with a borrowed video camera. His most notable work at the time was directing Alex Band's first music video at the age of 10.

Education
Rothe-Kushel attended Oakwood School until 1993, attended California Institute for the Arts & University of Southern California in Film & Video Production, graduated from Polytechnic School (Pasadena, California) in 1999 and Dartmouth College in 2003 where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He continues to be active in Dartmouth and Ivy League organizations.

Career
In 2000, Rothe-Kushel directed and produced the documentary feature, Pharaoh's Streets, about homelessness in downtown Los Angeles during the 2000 Democratic National Convention. He went on to win "Best Up-And-Coming Director" from the Silver Lake Film Festival as well as others. He went on to direct projects in Spain, Mexico, and Brazil as well as award-winning music videos for MTV.

He served as a development executive in television & film production developing projects with emerging writers out of graduate film programs at the American Film Institute, the University of Southern California, UCLA, Columbia University, and NYU. In 2004, he served as a creative executive for Torn Sky Entertainment which recently released The Trouble with Bliss starring Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu, and Peter Fonda. He has successfully pitched projects to independent production companies as well as Warner Bros., ABC, NBC, Telemundo, CBS, Fox, Sony Pictures & Paramount Pictures.

As a producer, Rothe-Kushel has a dozen features to his credit. He has worked with Ron Howard, Bruce Cohen, McG, Bennett Miller, Shonda Rhimes, James Toback, Brett Ratner, Danny Boyle, Spike Jonze, Gus Van Sant, Aisha Tyler, Warren Beatty, Magic Johnson, Billy Zane, James Belushi, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Sheen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech & Chong, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Slash (musician), Alice In Chains, Deepak Chopra, Melissa Etheridge, Hugh Hefner, Buck Henry, Dustin Lance Black, Tarsem, Gary Busey, Sarah Silverman, Marisa Tomei, Camilla Belle, and Scarlett Johansson. In 2005, he produced a few films including The Gingerdead Man, a horror-comedy film starring Gary Busey. In 2008, he worked with Frontline (U.S. TV series). In 2009-2011, in addition to being selected as one of thirty of the most influential thought leaders under 30 years of age by 30 Summit, he supervised the Los Angeles production of the top of the broadcast for the 81st Annual Academy Awards. In 2012, he produced "Golden Gods" for MTV & VH1, signed a deal for a television series, produced a stereoscopic 3D project, and produced five feature films, including Dream In American Rock & Roll: the Movie, Shiver, The Secret Lives of Dorks, starring James Belushi & Jennifer Tilly, The Ganzfeld Experiment, starring Billy Zane, Rumer Willis, Taylor Cole, Dominic Purcell, and Laura Wiggins and The Courier,  starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Micky Rourke.

In addition to his work in traditional film and TV industry, Rothe-Kushel has been a pioneer of new media since the 1990s. He is the Director of New Media for the Neukom Institute and Los Angeles County. He was among the first in the field to monetize Internet-based viral content and he has successfully developed, produced and deployed online content for local and national government as well as small businesses and Fortune 500 Companies.

Community Leadership
Rothe-Kushel is a leader with several non-profits such as the Courage Campaign, Liberty Hill Foundation, People For the American Way, Sierra Club, British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Brave New Films. He is currently the President of the Dartmouth Club of Los Angeles and the Dartmouth Alumni in Entertainment & Media Association. He serves as an advisor for the digital humanities and Tiltfactor Lab. He also serves on the board of the California Empowerment Congress, Yale in Hollywood, Ivy Entertainment, an organization of entertainment industry professionals from the Ivy League, and the Producers Guild of America.



Filmography
Line Producer:


 * Pharaoh's Streets (2000)
 * Star Party (2005)
 * Decadent Evil (2005)
 * Doll Graveyard (2005)
 * Gingerdead Man (2005)
 * Petrified (2006)
 * Evil Bong (2006)
 * Dead Man's Hand (film) (2007)
 * Gardens of the Night (2008)
 * Live in Brazil (2010)
 * Beautiful Boy (2010)

Producer:
 * Dream in American (2011)
 * The Courier (2012)