Biography
Early Life: Ken grew up on the East Coast competing in multiple sports. He was offered a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants before an injury curtailed any athletic possibilities. Looking at life through an oblique lens, Ken started writing comedy material in high school for popular stand-up comedians. This did not go unnoticed by Jerry Seinfeld's manager, George Shapiro, who admired the teenager's freewheeling comedy mind and encouraged him to write scripts. Subsequently, George and his partner Howard West, represented Ken. They were directly involved in negotiations with CAA, Brian Grazer, and Francie Calfo, President of Imagine TV, for Ken's comedy pilot script to be put under the Shapiro/West banner.
Writing and Producing: A Newhart episode Ken co-wrote aired on TV while he was still in high school. In college he continued to write professionally, reining in his surrealistic writing impulses to fit a more conventional template and appearing as a panelist on William F. Buckley Jr.'s television show, "Firing Line." Were it not for the firing of a network executive, Ken was slated to become a TV co-showrunner at 23. He moved on to pen TV comedies, TV network pilots (ABC, CBS), TV movies (Disney, Lifetime), and feature films (Warner Bros, Paramount and Vanguard Animation). Selling his initial feature film to Tom Lassally at Warners with eventual rewrites unfortunately prevented him from following up on his "Cheese Story," a pitched Seinfeld episode Larry David asked him to write. After exclusive deals at Viacom, Disney, and the ending of a partnership, Ken dropped out to recalibrate his bearings. Living off past earnings, he started turning out spec TV projects, which reunited him with George Shapiro, and original screenplays that had inherent value to him. Although a couple of the screenplays were deemed too offbeat and too dark for the mainstream market, his writing voice caught the attention of notable film producers, who quickly employed him as a script doctor. On a rewrite he did for Mike Medavoy, off of his own script Mike optioned, Mike commented that Ken knows what he's doing and gives you what you want. Recruited to punch up a comedy script for producer Laura Ziskin while she was prepping the movie "Spider-Man," Laura knew Ken could handle the comedy, but was mostly impressed at how he reworked and created strong, complex, female characters that defied simple stereotypes. Reflecting recently on Laura and her comments, Ken wrote an original screenplay this past year (shifting away from ghostwriting) for Margaret French Isaac, President of DiNovi Pictures, about five female friends. It is the fourth time Ken has worked with Margaret. Ken feels he is back to writing the kind of inspired material he initially wanted to do when he was discovered by George Shapiro.
Personal Life: Ken takes solace in knowing he has good friends like Jay Leno, Nicole Fox, producer-adviser Richard Arlook, and before their passing, Bob Saget and Richard Lewis, both of whom befriended Ken back when he was that teen comedy writer. He called Bob his older, wiser brother, who always had his back, and Richard one of his closest friends. Ken has kept texts and emails from Bob and Richard and considers them a calming presence in his life. He even retained a funny, rambling, 30 minute answering machine message once left by Richard. In fact, Richard was still talking when the tape ran out...
Due to a female stalker, and a DMV scandal involving identity theft, where Ken and others were victims of online misinformation, Ken was advised to restrict contact information and some personal details from the Bio.
