Executive Producer/Director/Writer
Jon Kroll has directed three feature films and produced dozens of television programs, including “The Amazing Race,” for which he was honored with a 2004 Primetime Emmy Award. For four years, he was Executive Vice President, Original Programming, for New Line Television. After leaving, he formed Loveable Scoundrels, Inc., a multimedia company that has produced shows for MTV, Spike, A&E, Lifetime, NatGeo, YouTube and Animal Planet. In addition to his producing, Kroll is an Adjunct Professor for USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Most recently, Kroll was Executive Producer of “American Grit” for Fox starring WWE superstar John Cena. Other recent projects include “Bullseye” and “Utopia” for Fox; Spike TV’s “Ten Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty”; “The Week the Women Went” for the BBC and Lifetime; “True Life: I’m Breaking Up With My Religion” for MTV; “Flipping Vegas” for A&E; “Pit Bulls & Parolees” for Animal Planet; “High School Confidential” for WE; and “Blade: The Series,” Spike TV’s first original dramatic series. He previously created the controversial UPN series, “Amish in the City,” which critics hailed as “One of the best new reality series of 2004.”
Kroll has produced television programs for nearly every broadcast and cable network. He was commissioned by Lucasfilm and Fox to make “From Star Wars to Star Wars: The Story of Industrial Light & Magic.” His other television credits include “Big Brother” for CBS, “Masters of Illusion” for NBC, “Movie Magic” for Discovery, “The Clone Age” and “How’d They Do That?” for TLC, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “Masters of Fantasy” for SciFi and “Live! The World’s Greatest Stunts” for Fox.
Kroll’s feature directing work includes the virtual reality thriller, “Menno’s Mind,” starring Bill Campbell, Stephanie Romanov, Corbin Bernsen, Michael Dorn, Robert Picardo, Robert Vaughn and Bruce Campbell. He also wrote and directed “Amanda & the Alien,” which was based on a story by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Robert Silverberg, and became Showtime’s highest rated original film of 1995.
In addition to film and television, Kroll has written, directed and produced an eclectic collection of projects in other media. He has overseen more than two dozen live stage productions, most recently directing “Freedom of Speech” for the inaugural season of Sci-Fest in Los Angeles. He spent eight months in southern Japan as Supervising Show Director for “Harmonyland,” a theme park featuring Sanrio’s iconic Hello Kitty character and later directed the Ron Howard hosted Universal Studios Tour. He recently he penned a graphic novel of his early childhood, “Tales of a Hippy Kid,” which was published by Ape Comics.
Originally from Northern California, Kroll was raised on a Mendocino County commune without television or electricity. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Film Production and graduated Summa Cum Laude from San Francisco State University. Kroll later completed his M.F.A. at the U.S.C. School of Cinema-Television’s Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife of 29 years, competitive archer Karen Kroll.
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