Tom Musca [1] [2] (born 1951) is an American filmmaker and professor.
Musca graduated Phi Beta Kappa rom Rutgers University in 1973 [2] and received an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981. [1]
Musca's best known work was as the writer and producer of Warner Brothers' Stand and Deliver in 1988. [3] The film was nominated for seven Independent Spirit Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay honors for Musca. [4] Additionally, Edward James Olmos, was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his role in the film [5] and actor Lou Diamond Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe. Stand and Deliver is preserved in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress. [6]
Musca has gone on to write, produce and direct for film, television and the theater. [7] He was a co-writer and producer for Hollywood Pictures' Money for Nothing with John Cusack, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Benicio del Toro and Samuel Goldwyn's Tortilla Soup [8] starring Hector Elizondo and Raquel Welch. He wrote and directed Melting Pot aka Race [9] starring Paul Rodriguez and was a writer for Disney Channel's Gotta Kick It Up! starring America Ferrara. [10]
Since 2010 Musca has been the head of the MFA Screenwriting track and Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Miami School of Communication. [11] Since that time he has gone on to become one of Miami's most prolific producers; in 2020 he wrote, produced and directed [12] Chateau Vato, a rags to riches comedy set in Miami and his fourth film for HBO. [13] On March 9, 2023, he premiered Dying To Direct, [14] a thirty minute film based on one of his short stories at the 40th Annual Miami Film Festival, [15] which he wrote, produced and co-directed. Aguadilla, [16] his film noir thriller premiered at Cinequest FIlm Festival in 2025 [17] and the 42nd Annual Miami Film Festival, [18] his fifth film to be showcased at this prestigious forum.