Biography
Steve Stark is an award-winning television producer and studio executive with a legacy of hit and culture-moving series. Stark has served in senior development & current positions at three major studios (Paramount, Columbia TriStar & Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) as well as an Executive Producer on multiple series for Universal, Paramount, 21st Century Fox and MGM. Stark was President of MGM Television for nine years before departing to launch his own production Company: Toluca Pictures in May of 2021.
When he first joined MGM, it was just reemerging from bankruptcy and Stark was tasked with rebooting and then relaunching MGM Television. He subsequently launched MGM's multiple network-defining and Emmy & Golden Globe award-winning scripted series including: "The Handmaid's Tale" for Hulu (which broke ground by making Hulu the first Streaming Platform to ever win the Emmy Award for Best Drama series & brought MGM its first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 30 years; FX's "Fargo" (which brought MGM its first-ever Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series; "Vikings" - History's #1 scripted series & a global juggernaut in over 170 countries; "Teenwolf" - MTV's long-running #1 scripted series; "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - Hulu's premiere limited series; And 3 critically-acclaimed series: "Get Shorty", (starring Chris O'Dowd & Ray Romano); "Perpetual Grace LTD" (starring Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley); and "Condor" (all for EPIX).
At his company Toluca Pictures, Stark continues his ongoing partnership with MGM & Amazon, Executive Producing those award-winning signature series he developed and launched during his run at the studio, including "The Handmaid's Tale" (created by Bruce Miller), FX's "Fargo" (created by Noah Hawley) Netflix's upcoming "Vikings: Valhalla" (created by Michael Hirst & Jeb Stuart) and "Wednesday" (created by Al Gough & Miles Millar & directed by Tim Burton). "Wednesday" remains the most watched English language series in the history of Netflix.
Since launching Toluca Pictures, Stark has also Executive Produced several new series, including "The Consultant" (created by Tony Basgallop and starring Oscar winner Christoph Waltz), as well his first documentary: "The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes" that won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary.
New Toluca Pictures series in production include the limited series "The Bombing of Pan Am Flight #103" for BBC/Netflix; the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale "Testaments" for Hulu and the Mexican superhero franchise: "El Gato" and the historical epic series: "Bloodaxe" both for Amazon Prime.
Before Toluca Pictures & MGM, Stark was President and Executive Producer of Steve Stark Productions, where he led the company to an overall deal with NBC/Universal Television. His slate of Universal series included USA Network's "Fairly Legal" (created by Michael Sardo) and the NBC series "The Event" (created by Nick Wauters). He also developed and Executive Produced the long-running CBS hit series "Medium" (created by Glenn Gordon Caron) starring Emmy winner Patricia Arquette. His development and producing credits also include The CW's "The Game" (created by Mara Brock Akil) and the U.S. adaptation of "The Sketch Show", which he also Executive Produced while president of Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet Productions in their long partnership with Paramount Network Television.
Stark had previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Development at Columbia Tri-Star Network Television, overseeing the development of drama, comedy and alternative programming where he developed "Hack" (created by David Koepp) for CBS and "Everwood" (created by Greg Berlanti) for the WB. Earlier, he had served as Senior Vice President, Current Programming at Paramount Network Television, where he shepherded multiple episodes of series beginning with the last season of "Cheers" that was followed by: "Frasier", "JAG", "Becker", "Nash Bridges", "Girlfriends", "Duckman", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"; "Star Trek: Voyager", "Soul Food", "Brooklyn Bridge", "Seven Days", "Clueless", "The Untouchables", "Now and Again" and "Sister, Sister", among many others. Prior to his run at Paramount, he worked as a producer and development executive for Al Burton Productions at Universal Studios where he wrote and produced the syndicated series: "The New Lassie" and served as a Production Consultant on the syndicated hit: "Charles in Charge". Beginning his career while still in college at Northwestern University, Stark collaborated with Executive Producer Bob Banner on his senior project "Rising Stars" to develop and eventually launch the long-running series "Star Search" with syndication mogul Al Masini. The series ran for 12 years and launched the careers of many successful and notable artists.
Stark's series that he has overseen or produced have garnered multiple Peabodys, Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG, DGA, WGA, AFI, BANFF and Rose d'Or wins. Stark himself is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominee, the recipient of the Entertainment Industries Council Special Commendation, 2 AFI Television Awards, a Genesis Award, The Prism Award, The Golden Reel Award, the 2019 Help Group Humanitarian of the Year Award and the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, the Television Academy and a proud graduate of Northwestern University.
