2012 Master Instructors

Our Masters instructors are professionals and award winning Writers, Producers and Directors that are equipped with the knowledge and experience to provide the best and most current training to all of our participants.

Kim Fields

Kim Fields – DGA

Her staying power as a fan favorite and industry staple solidifies that Kim has what it takes to, not only reign as one of America?s top actresses, but filmmaker and successful director/producer as well.

Known worldwide as an actress, starring in two long running series, ”Facts of Life” and ”Living Single”; both currently in worldwide syndication, she is also an award-winning director. For the past year and a half, with nearly 100 episodes under her belt, Kim has been the lead director this season for Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns and House of Payne. Later this winter she will take on the role as Supervising Producer and Director for an upcoming Tyler Perry comedy. Considered one of BET networks premier directors/producer Kim recently directed BET flagship scripted series, Lets Stay Together. Additionally, she spent 5 years directing/producing the networks specials, events and documentaries.

Furthermore, she has received high esteem for her directing and producing of the documentary, ”Discovering Monk” and “Trane: One Night @ Carnegie Hall.” As well, she has written, executive produced and directed the networks first original mini-series A Royal Birthday. A dedicated jazz fan, she?s produced and directed a documentary profile of jazz saxophonist Najee, entitled, ?Najee: Sax in South Africa.

Kim has also garnered global recognition as a poet and spoken word artist with her smooth Jazz/Spoken Word CD, ”Smooth is Spoken Here” and appearances in several noteworthy music festivals, HBO?s Def Poetry and Soul Train.

As an acclaimed actress, Kim has accumulated numerous starring and guest starring roles, theater productions and TV movies including BET’s ”Hidden Blessings”. Independent feature film credits include ”An Uninvited Guest” with Mekhi Pheifer and the romantic comedy ”Me & Mrs. Jones”.

Throughout her career, Kim has received cover and feature stories in the top magazines and newspapers. Her recent marriage to Christopher Morgan and the birth of their son Sabastian made news around the world. The new family received major coverage in People, JET AP Entertainment Tonight exclusives and the internet.

Kim is also a noted and highly sought after keynote speaker, and remains in demand to share her knowledge about women?s issues, filmmaking, faith & family.

Ed Weinberger

Ed Weinberger – WGA

Ed Weinberger is one of television’s most respected writer-producers who, along with James L. Brooks, David Davis, Allan Burns, and Stan Daniels, comprised the heart of the MTM creative team. Weinberger has received numerous awards for his work, which includes a number of successful and/or critically acclaimed series for both MTM and his own John Charles Walters Company, of which he was a partner.

Weinberger’s early TV experience includes writing for The Dean Martin Show, where he was teamed with Stan Daniels, who eventually became Weinberger’s writing partner at MTM. Weinberger had also been a writer for Bob Hope, traveling with him to Vietnam. In the late-1960s, Weinberger wrote a screenplay about a divorced woman who struggled to make it on her own. Although never produced, Mary Tyler Moore Show creators James L. Brooks and Allan Burns saw a copy of the script and hired Weinberger during the series’ second season.

In addition to his Emmy-award winning work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Weinberger, along with Daniels, created and produced the MTM sitcoms Phyllis, Doc, and The Betty White Show. In 1977, Weinberger, with Brooks, Davis, and Daniels, were wooed away by Paramount, which was looking to finance other independent production companies for ABC programming. The MTM alumni welcomed the change, if only because the cozy MTM atmosphere was being gradually replaced by a growing bureaucracy that hampered creativity. Brooks, Davis, Daniels and Weinberger formed the John Charles Walters Company, which produced its most famous sitcom, Taxi, in 1978.

In Taxi, Weinberger and the other members of the new creative team were able to successfully echo the quality television that had become synonymous with MTM. Much like an MTM show, Taxi was a sophisticated example of humor derived from carefully-crafted character exploration. Taxi also pursued the “work-place as family” theme so prominent in the best of MTM sitcoms. Canceled in 1982 by ABC, Taxi was picked up by NBC for a continuing season. Thus, Weinberger helped deliver a second-generation of quality television that extended into the 1980s.