Jack Kenny | |
|---|---|
 Jack Kenny at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International. | |
| Born | March 9, 1958 |
| Education | Juilliard School (BFA) |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Michael Goodell (m. 2008) |
| Relatives | Roger Goodell (brother-in-law) |
Jack Kenny (born March 9, 1958) is an American writer, director, actor, and producer.
Kenny was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sally (from Guantanamo, Cuba), a mother and housewife, and Jack, Jr. (from Chicago, IL), a business manager for IBM.[ citation needed ] He grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY and in Raleigh, NC. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School Theatre Center, [1] where his classmates in Group 11 included Megan Gallagher, Penny Johnson Jerald, Jack Stehlin, and Lorraine Toussaint. [2]
After graduating from Juilliard, Kenny was a member of John Houseman's The Acting Company, and toured for two seasons. His New York acting debut was in the original production of The Normal Heart at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, and his Broadway debut was as "Motel, the tailor" in the 25th anniversary production of Fiddler on the Roof . He has performed at several Off-Broadway houses, including the Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and the Manhattan Punchline. He has numerous TV and Film credits, but his first television appearance was on Miami Vice in 1987.
His first TV writing credit was for Square One on PBS. Kenny has written for Nickelodeon's The Secret World of Alex Mack , CBS's Dave's World , NBC's Caroline in the City , Fox's Holding the Baby , Lifetime's Maggie, TNT's Falling Skies, Netflix's Jessica Jones and A Series of Unfortunate Events , ABC's Kevin (Probably) Saves the World , NBC's Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist , among others. He's also written numerous television pilots.
Kenny co-Created the television comedy series Titus (which ran for 54 episodes on the Fox Network from 2000 to 2002) with his writing partner Brian Hargrove and comedian Christopher Titus. Kenny & Hargrove also ran the short-lived Fox Network series Wanda at Large .
He was also the Creator of the 2006 NBC television series The Book of Daniel , which was cancelled after four episodes had aired. Though NBC gave no official explanation, the program had been the victim of an advertiser boycott by the American Family Association and other groups for its content before a single episode had aired. In a 2006 article in The Advocate , Kenny, who is gay, took issue with the LGBT community for not acting when he and the show were attacked. [3] The Book of Daniel has the further distinction of being the first television series to air on the Internet when its last four episodes were streamed in February and March 2006.
In 2008, he signed on as show runner and executive producer of the original Syfy series Warehouse 13 , and subsequently produced 63 episodes of the series, writing and directing several episodes, and appearing in the series finale.
As a director, Jack has helmed several episodes of Titus , Reba , ABC Family's Roommates , Warehouse 13 , a pilot for the WB, and most recently has written and directed the short film, The Birds Sing Too Loud with Jane Lynch & Kate Mulgrew, which has won several festival awards, and was featured on Funny or Die.
In 2014, Kenny joined the advisory board of Sci-Fest, the first annual Los Angeles Science Fiction One-Act Play Festival. [4] He directed a play in the first year of the festival, and is slated to direct another in 2016.
Kenny has been with his husband, Michael Goodell, [5] [6] [7] a Level 4 Pilates teacher in Los Angeles, and the son of the late US Senator Charles Goodell of New York, and brother of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell [8] since August 1982. The couple were legally married in California in July 2008.
His sister, Adele Kenny Sweetwood, is a Marketing Executive and author of the book, The Analytical Marketer.
Kenny has always been active in gay rights causes and gay politics. In 1991, he, along with Ken Daigle and Tom Viola, founded Broadway Pride, a group of Broadway and Off-Broadway LGBT actors and crew to march in that year's Gay Pride Parade in New York City. It was the first such organization to march in a Pride parade that was strictly a professional-oriented group with no health or AIDS-related affiliations.
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Titus is an American dark comedy sitcom that debuted on Fox in 2000. The series was created by its star, Christopher Titus, Jack Kenny, and Brian Hargrove. The sitcom is based on Titus's stand-up comedy act, more specifically his one-man show Norman Rockwell is Bleeding, which was based loosely upon his real-life family; lines from Norman Rockwell is Bleeding were spoken by Titus as commentary. Titus plays an outwardly childish adult based on himself, who owns a custom car shop. The show follows him and his dimwitted half-brother Dave, his girlfriend Erin with the "heart of gold", his goody-goody friend Tommy, and his arrogantly lewd, bigoted, heavy smoking and drinking, womanizing, divorced multiple times, father Ken "Papa" Titus.
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David Brian Hargrove is an American television writer and producer. He was a co-creator of the television series Titus (2000–2002) along with Christopher Titus and Jack Kenny.