Biography
Jeff Kurtti is a renowned cross-platform communicator, recognized for fluency in a variety of forms and formats. He is the most prolific nonfiction author in Disney history, with more than 40 volumes to his credit over 25 years. A leading authority on The Walt Disney Company, its founder, and its history, Kurtti is also a writer-director of award-winning documentary content, and a respected public speaker. For several years, he worked for Walt Disney Imagineering, the theme park design division of The Walt Disney Company, and then for the Corporate Special Projects department of Disney. Since 1995, Kurtti has enjoyed a career as an author, writer, and consultant in the motion picture, theater, and themed-design industries.
Applying his vast knowledge of Hollywood history, Kurtti was executive producer and key creative supervisor of the definitive DVD versions of such film classics as Around the World in 80 Days, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Sixth Sense, A Bug's Life, Tarzan®, Toy Story, Fantasia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Monsters, Inc. and Beauty and the Beast.
His video productions have been seen on "The Academy Awards®," Turner Classic Movies and "The Wonderful World of Disney." He also has produced a popular series of limited-edition DVDs with noted film historian Leonard Maltin, featuring vintage films and TV series.
In 2009 Kurtti was one of the producers of The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story, a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary about the songwriting duo of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.
One of Kurtti's most challenging (and personally rewarding) projects was The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. After five years of acting as creative director, content consultant, and media producer for the facility's cornerstone exhibit, Kurtti saw the museum become a reality (and open to great acclaim) in October 2009.
In 2012, he served as a content consultant and media producer for Disney Japan and NHK for the touring exhibit The Dream of Walt Disney; and the following year for the 2013 D23 Expo/Japan.
As a freelance writer Kurtti is the author of such books as The Great Movie Musical Trivia Book (Applause, 1996), A Bug's Life: The Making of an Epic of Miniature Proportions (Hyperion, 1998), What the Sea Teaches Us: The Crew of the Morning Light (Disney Editions, 2008), The Art of The Princess and the Frog (Chronicle, 2009), Disneyland Through The Decades (Disney Editions, 2010), and The Art of Tangled (Chronicle, 2010).
Kurtti has been a show producer, script writer, guest speaker and moderator at D23 Expo, a consultant and guest speaker at Experience Music Project, and an artist-in-residence at The Disney Institute. He has been a guest lecturer at the Museum of the Rockies, Presidio Officer's Club, and The Walt Disney Family Museum. His articles have appeared in Widescreen Review, Collector's Showcase, Sketches and Disney Twenty-Three.
A Seattle native, Kurtti moved to California in 1983 to pursue a career in film, television and theatre. He worked as a production coordinator on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, followed by two years as the assistant to the president of California Institute of the Arts.
Since 1995 Kurtti has enjoyed a career as an author and creative consultant in the motion picture, theatre, and themed entertainment industries. Prior to his freelance career he worked for Walt Disney Imagineering, the theme park design division of The Walt Disney Company, and then for the Corporate Special Projects department of Disney.
