Kurt Sutter Biography

Kurt Leon Sutter (born May 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He worked as a producer, writer, and director on The Shield, and appeared on the show as hitman Margos Dezerian. Sutter is also the creator of Sons of Anarchy on FX and writes, produces, directs, and plays incarcerated club member Otto Delaney on the series. Sutter spent time with members of an outlaw club in Northern California as research for Sons of Anarchy. Sutter's wife, actress Katey Sagal, is also one of the show's lead actresses.

Early life

Sutter was born in Rahway, New Jersey. His father worked at the General Motors plant in Linden, New Jersey and his mother was a secretary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. He has two older sisters. He grew up in the township of Clark, New Jersey and graduated from Roselle Catholic High School in 1982.

Sutter attended Livingston College for the journalism department of Rutgers University"?which was located there"?eventually graduating from Rutgers University with a BA in mass media with a minor in English in 1986. He moved to New York City and studied Meisner technique, did theater, and taught at the Gately/Poole Conservatory. He earned an MFA from Northern Illinois University in 1997.

Career

Sutter moved to Los Angeles, California in 2000.

Sutter was hired as a staff writer for the first season of FX crime drama The Shield in 2002. He made his television writing debut with the episode "Blowback", in which he appeared as Armenian mob hitman Margos Dezerian. He co-wrote the episodes "Dragonchasers" and "Two Days of Blood" with fellow staff writer Scott Rosenbaum, and was promoted to story editor for the second season in 2003. He wrote the episodes "Scar Tissue" and "Dead Soldiers" and in 2004, joined the production team in the junior role of co-producer for the third season. He continued to write episodes and scripted "Playing Tight" and "Mum" with series creator and executive producer Shawn Ryan, "Slipknot" solo, and "Fire in the Hole" with consulting producer Charles H. Eglee. He reprised his role as Dezerian in the season's final episodes "All In" and "On Tilt".

He was promoted to supervising producer for the fourth season in 2005. He wrote the episode "Grave" solo, co-wrote the story for the episode "Judas Priest" with Eglee and co-wrote the teleplay with Rosenbaum. He co-wrote the story for the season finale "Ain't That a Shame" with Ryan; Ryan co-wrote the teleplay for the episode with co-executive producer Glen Mazzara. Sutter became a co-executive producer for the fifth season in 2006. He wrote the episode "Extraction", co-wrote the episode "Trophy" with Renee Palya and Tony Soltis, and co-wrote the season's penultimate episode "Fire in the Hole" with Eglee.

He became an executive producer for the sixth season in 2007, directed a promotional mini-episode for the sixth season entitled "Wins and Losses," and wrote the sixth season premiere "On the Jones". He co-wrote the episode "Exiled" with Rosenbaum, also now an executive producer.

Sutter returned as an executive producer and writer for the seventh and final season in 2008. He wrote the premiere "Coefficient of Drag" and co-wrote the episode "Parricide" with Gary Lennon. At the close of the season he was the series' second most prolific writer (after Ryan), having written or co-written 18 episodes in total.

Also in autumn 2008, Sutter created and executive produced a new series for FX entitled Sons of Anarchy. The show centers on the titular motorcycle club in California. He was the series head writer and showrunner. Along with the pilot episode he wrote the episodes "Seeds", "Fun Town", "The Pull", "Capybara", "The Sleep of Babies", and the season finale "The Revelator"; Sutter also directed "The Revelator". Sutter appears in the show as incarcerated club member Otto Delaney, and he cast his wife Katey Sagal in the starring role as the club's matriarch Gemma Teller. Sutter also hired several crew members whom he had worked with on The Shield, including unit production manager and producer Kevin G. Cremin, post-production supervisor and producer Craig Yahata, and directors Guy Ferland, Stephen Kay, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Paris Barclay, Terence O'Hara, and Billy Gierhart. The first season also featured The Shield star Jay Karnes as a recurring special guest star playing ATF Agent Joshua Kohn.

Sutter remained showrunner and executive producer for the series' second season in 2009. He wrote the series premiere "Albification", co-wrote the episode "Eureka" with Brett Conrad, co-wrote the episode "Gilead" with co-producer Chris Collins, co-wrote the episode "Potlatch" with Misha Green, co-wrote the teleplay for the episode "Service" with co-executive producer Jack LoGiudice from a story by Brady Dahl and Cory Udica, co-wrote the episode "The Culling" with consulting producer Dave Erickson, and wrote and directed the season finale "Na Trioblid". The second season featured The Shield star Kenny Johnson as a special guest star playing a club member named Kozik.

Sutter returned as showrunner and executive producer for the third season in 2010. He wrote the season premiere "SO", co-wrote the episode "Oiled" with Erickson, now a co-executive producer, co-wrote the episode "Home" with Liz Sagal, series' star Katey Sagal's sister and his sister-in-law. He co-wrote the episode "Widening Gyre" with co-producer Regina Corrado and the episode "Lochan Mor" with Erickson and Liz Sagal. He wrote the story for the episode "Turas"; the teleplay was co-written by Collins (now a producer) and Dahl. He co-wrote the episode "Firinne" with Vaunn Wilmott and the episode "Bainne" with Corrado and Erickson. He wrote the story for the episode "June Wedding"; Collins wrote the teleplay. He reprised the role of Otto in the season finale, titled "NS", which he also directed and co-wrote with Erickson. Johnson returned as Kozik in the third season.

Projects in development

• Prequel to Sons of Anarchy at FX Networks
• The Bastard Executioner with producer Brian Grazer at FX Networks - takes place in the 14th century and would shoot in the United Kingdom
• Southpaw feature film with screenplay by Sutter

Personal life

Sutter married actress Katey Sagal in a private ceremony on October 2, 2004, at their home in Los Feliz, California. Their first child, daughter Esme Louise, was born January 10, 2007. Esme was carried by a surrogate mother.

Sutter is an animal rights activist and is vegan.

Filmography

Producer

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2010	Sons of Anarchy	Executive producer	Season 3
2009			Season 2
2008			Season 1
	The Shield	Executive producer	Season 7
2007			Season 6
2006		Co-executive producer	Season 5
2005		Supervising producer	Season 4
2004		Co-producer	Season 3
2003		Story editor	Season 2
2002		Staff writer	Season 1

Writer

Year	Show	Season	Episode title	Episode	Original airdate	Notes
2010	Sons of Anarchy	3	"NS"	13	30 November 2010	Co-written with Dave Erickson
			"June Wedding"	12	23 November 2010	Story by Sutter, teleplay by Chris Collins
			"Bainne"	11	16 November 2010	Co-written with Dave Erickson and Regina Corrado
			"Frinne"	10	9 November 2010	Co-written with Vaun Wilmott
			"Turas"	9	2 November 2010	Story by Sutter, teleplay co-written by Chris Collins and Brady Dahl
			"Lochan Mor"	8	26 October 2010	Co-written with Dave Erickson and Liz Sagal
			"Widening Gyre"	7	19 October 2010	Co-written with Regina Corrado
			"Home"	4	28 September 2010	Co-written with Liz Sagal
			"Oiled"	2	14 September 2010	Co-written with Dave Erickson
			"So"	1	7 September 2010
2009		2	"Na Triobloidi"	13	1 December 2009
			"The Culling"	12	24 November 2009	Co-written with Dave Erickson
			"Service"	11	17 November 2009	Teleplay co-written with Jack LoGiudice from a story by Brady Dahl and Cori Udica
			"Potlatch"	8	27 October 2009	Co-written with Misha Green
			"Gilead"	7	20 October 2009	Co-written with Chris Collins
			"Eureka"	4	29 September 2009	Co-written with Brett Conrad
			"Albification"	1	8 September 2009
2008		1	"The Revelator"	13	26 November 2008
			"The Sleep of Babies"	12	19 November 2008
			"Capybara"	11	12 November 2008	Co-written with Dave Erickson
			"The Pull"	8	22 October 2008	Co-written with Jack LoGiudice
			"Fun Town"	3	17 September 2008
			"Seeds"	2	10 September 2008
			"Pilot"	1	3 September 2008
	The Shield	7	"Parricide"	8	21 October 2008	Co-written with Gary Lennon
			"Coefficient of Drag"	1	2 September 2008
2007		6	"Exiled"	7	15 May 2007	Co-written with Scott Rosenbaum
			"On The Jones"	1	3 April 2007
2006		5	"Of Mice and Lem"	10	14 March 2006	Co-written with Charles H. Eglee
			"Trophy"	5	7 February 2006	Co-written with Renee Palya and Tony Soltis
			"Extraction"	1	10 January 2006
2005		4	"Ain't That a Shame"	13	14 June 2005	Story co-written with Shawn Ryan, teleplay by Ryan and Glen Mazzara
			"Judas Priest"	12	7 June 2005	Story co-written with Charles H. Eglee, teleplay co-written with Scott Rosenbaum
			"Grave"	2	22 March 2005
2004		3	"Fire in the Hole"	13	1 June 2004	Co-written with Charles H. Eglee
			"Slipknot"	9	4 May 2004
			"Mum"	5	6 April 2004	Co-written with Shawn Ryan
			"Playing Tight"	1	9 March 2004	Co-written with Shawn Ryan
2003		2	"Scar Tissue"	8	25 February 2003
			"Dead Soldiers"	2	14 January 2003
2002		1	"Two Days of Blood"	12	28 May 2002	Co-written with Scott Rosenbaum
			"Dragonchasers"	10	14 May 2002	Co-written with Scott Rosenbaum
			"Blowback"	5	9 April 2002

Director

Year	Show	Season	Episode title	Episode	Original airdate	Notes
2010	Sons of Anarchy	3	"NS"	13	30 November 2010	Season finale
2009		2	"Na Triobloidi"	13	1 December 2009	Season finale
2008		1	"The Revelator"	13	26 November 2008	Season finale
2007	The Shield	6	"Wins and Losses"	0	15 February 2007	Promotional short for season 6

Actor

Year	Show	Role	Season	Episode title	Episode	Original airdate	Notes
2012	Sons of Anarchy	Otto	5	"Small World"	6	16 October 2012	Uncredited appearance
2011			4	"Call of Duty"	11	15 November 2011	Uncredited appearance
				"Brick"	5	4 October 2011	Uncredited appearance
				"Una Venta"	4	27 September 2011	Uncredited appearance
				"Out"	1	6 September 2011	Uncredited appearance
2010			3	"NS"	13	30 November 2010	Uncredited appearance
2009			2	"Na Triobloidi"	13	1 December 2009	Uncredited appearance
				"Fa Guan"	9	3 November 2009	Uncredited appearance
				"Smite"	5	6 October 2009	Uncredited appearance
				"Small Tears"	2	15 September 2009	Uncredited appearance
2008			1	"Better Half"	10	5 November 2008	Uncredited appearance
				"Giving Back"	5	1 October 2008	Uncredited appearance
2004	The Shield	Margos Dezerian	3	"On Tilt"	15	15 June 2004	Uncredited appearance
				"All In"	14	8 June 2004	Uncredited appearance
2002			1	"Blowback"	5	9 April 2002	Uncredited appearance

See also

• Outlaw Empires