‘AFTER ALL THESE YEARS’
PRODUCTION BIOS
JACK GROSSBART (Executive Producer) – Jack Grossbart is an independent producer who has produced nearly 40 telefilms in the last 20 years. Partnered with Linda Kent in Grossbart Kent Productions, their recent credits include “Heartless,” starring Melanie Griffith for CBS and Lifetime’s “Why I Wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy,” starring Sarah Chalke, for which they received the 2007 Gracie Award, were finalists for the 2007 Humanitas Prize and received a 2007 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Made for Television Movie.
Before forming Grossbart Kent Productions, Grossbart was partnered with Joan Barnett in Grossbart/Barnett Productions for 15 years and produced telefilms for CBS, NBC, ABC and HBO, as well as some of the newly emerging cable channels. Among their productions have been “Any Mother’s Son,” “The Marriage Fool” starring Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett, “Unforgivable” starring John Ritter, the award-winning “Something to Live For: The Alison Gertz Story” starring Molly Ringwald, “Leave of Absence” starring Brian Dennehy and Jacqueline Bisset, “Last Wish” starring Patty Duke and Maureen Stapleton and HBO’s “The Comrades of Summer” starring Joe Mantegna.
Grossbart executive produced the Emmy® nominated miniseries “Echoes in the Darkness,” based on the best-selling Joseph Wambaugh book, “The Preppie Murder,” starring William (Billy) Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle, “Rockabye” and “I Was a Mail Order Bride,” both starring Valerie Bertinelli, and Hallmark Channel’s Original Movie “Edge of the Garden.” In the half-hour series arena, Grossbart executive produced the Bertinelli series “Sydney” for CBS and “Café Americain” for NBC.
Grossbart graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in English and Dramatic Arts and started working in the mailroom at ICM, where he worked his way up to become an agent in their Theater Department. After four years, he moved to Los Angeles to work for the William Morris Agency, where he was an agent in the television department for five years. In 1980 he formed Litke-Grossbart Management and shortly after that he started his producing career.
An active member of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors for many years, Grossbart was head of its membership committee. He has been a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for 15 years and has served on the awards committee and the Producer’s Peer Group Executive Committee. In 1997, he was elected a Governor representing the Producers Peer Group, a post he held for four years.
For the last four years, Grossbart has been an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinema and Television in the Production Division.
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LISA DEMBERG (Executive Producer) - Lisa Demberg has worked on projects ranging from television documentaries to feature films. Demberg’s extensive experience as an executive producer on television movies includes “12 Men of Christmas,” “The Dive from Clausen’s Pier,” “Twelve Mile Road,” “Indiscretion of an American Wife” and “Thrill” - all for Lifetime. She also executive produced the television movies “Home Alone 4” and “Different,” both for ABC, and “Murder Live” for NBC.
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JON MAAS (Executive Producer/Writer) – Jon Maas was born in the Bronx and raised in New Jersey. He started his career in the entertainment industry as a gofer on Broadway working for the Theatre Guild on such productions as Absurd Person Singular and then went on to intern at the Chelsea Theatre Center. After graduating from the Pratt Institute, he worked in theatrical advertising and was the general manager’s assistant on such Broadway productions as Bent, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Sugar Babies. Maas was then tapped by the legendary Broadway producer David Merrick to be his assistant on the original production of 42nd Street.
Maas then went on to become the Director of Programs, East Coast for NBC, where he supervised such series at “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The News is the News” and “Friday Night Videos.” Maas is currently writing and producing for television and film. His works include Showtime’s “The Last Debate,” with James Garner, Peter Gallagher and Audra McDonald and most recently Lifetime’s “12 Men of Christmas,” starring Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Hopkins.
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HARVEY KAHN (Executive Producer, Producer) - Harvey Kahn has produced numerous independent features and television movies since the late 1980s. In 1998, he founded Front Street Pictures in Santa Monica, CA, and opened the Vancouver office four years later. The company produces a diverse mix of independent films and movies-of-the-week for worldwide distribution, as well as providing a full range of production services. Kahn and Front Street have produced a number of critically acclaimed features and more than 40 TV movies with and for most of the US studios and networks, including the award-winning and highly rated “Little Girl Lost” for the Lifetime Movie Network and the Hallmark Channel Original Movies “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle,” “Debbie Macomber’s Call Me Mrs. Miracle,” “Kiss At Pine Lake,” “Notes From The Heart Healer,” “Hitched For The Holidays,” “It’s Christmas, Carol!” and “Cedar Cove.”
Among the many independent features he’s produced, such as “The Proposal” (Miramax) starring Jennifer Esposito and Stephen Lang, the critically acclaimed “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” (Warner) starring Naomi Watts and Mark Ruffalo was a competition selection at the
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2004 Sundance Film Festival and “The Deal” (Sony) starring Christian Slater and Selma Blair, which he also directed, had its premiere at the 2005 AFI Film Festival. “Nobody’s Baby” (Artisan) starring Gary Oldman and Mary Steenburgen premiered at Sundance and he directed “Water’s Edge” (Lionsgate).
Kahn started his career in the entertainment industry at the Disney Channel and was its first director of publicity. Before entering the film/TV industry, he worked on political and social issue campaigns in California and Washington, DC. He also worked in investigative journalism.
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SCOTT SMITH (Executive Producer, Director) – A graduate of Simon Fraser University and a Director Resident at the Canadian Film Centre, Scott Smith is the director of two acclaimed dramatic feature films, “Rollercoaster” (2000) and “Falling Angels” (2004), starring Miranda Richardson and adapted from the novel by Barbara Gowdy.
He has been nominated for both Genie and Gemini Awards for his work in film and television, as well as a Director's Guild nomination for Best Director - Feature Film for “Falling Angels.” His first feature length documentary, “As Slow As Possible,” was nominated for the Don Haig Award in 2008. In 2010, as one of Canada’s top filmmakers, Smith was invited to participate in the omnibus National Parks Project, and in collaboration with musicians Sarah Harmer, Bry Webb, and Jim Guthrie made the film “Looking Around Without Blinking,” about Gwaii Haanas National Park, in Haida Gwaii. Scott’s recent television work includes directing the pilots for MTV’s
American remake of British teen hit “Skins” and Jason Priestley’s comedy hit “Call Me Fitz,” (for which he won the Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Comedy Series in 2011).
Smith lives in Vancouver.
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MARNIE TERMUENDE (Executive Producer) – Marnie Termuende is currently controller of the independent film and television production company Front Street Pictures with whom she has worked since its inception. Termuende’s primary focus is production finance and reporting as well as tax related issues within the Canadian film and television tax credit programs.
After graduating in economics and business from Simon Fraser University, Termuende spent a number of years in the government relations and public affairs division of the Los Angeles based, independent refiner, Tosco Corporation which was active in oil shale development on the Western Slope of Colorado.
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Once Tosco ceased its Colorado operations, Termuende moved into finance and management with the independent investment banking firm of Auger Associates, Inc. operating in both Washington DC and Boulder, Colorado. Returning to Canada, Termuende gravitated to the growing film industry in Vancouver. She has since been involved in well over 50 television movies and numerous feature films.
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SUSAN ISAACS (Author) – Born in Brooklyn, Susan Isaacs began her writing career at Seventeen magazine and continued as a speech writer after starting a family. An avid mystery reader, Isaacs set out to become a mystery novelist, her first book, Compromising Positions, was published in 1987. Compromising Positions became a best seller and was later adapted into a Paramount film starring Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia; the script was penned by Isaacs. Isaacs also wrote and co-produced “Hello Again,” starring Shelley Long, Gabriel Byrne and Judith Ivey. On top of this, she has written one nonfiction book, articles, essays, op-ed pieces, book reviews and even covered the 2000 presidential campaign for Newsday.
Isaacs has received the Writers for Writers Award, the Marymount Manhattan Writing Center Award and the John Steinbeck Award. Among her many accomplishments, all of her novels are New York Times bestsellers.
Susan Isaacs lives in Long Island with her husband of forty years and is a proud mother and grandmother.
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