Biografia
Jerry Offsay began his career, after graduating from Columbia University School of Law in 1977, at the Los Angeles office of Loeb and Loeb, where he was made a partner in 1982, at the age of twenty-eight. He remained at Loeb and Loeb until April 1985, when he left to be President of the production division of one of his clients, RKO Pictures. While in private practice, Jerry initially focused on music and recording artists and record producers but quickly developed a specialty in the financing of independent films and represented a number of international sales companies, video companies, completion bond companies, private equity investors and a number of the leading independent production companies. He also represented a number of prominent actors, directors, writers and musical artists.
At RKO, Jerry supervised the production, financing and distribution of nine films, including Hamburger Hill, Eight Men Out and Narrow Margin. His duties also included the supervision of the company's video cassette and television syndication divisions. Jerry led a seventy five million dollar management buyout of RKO in 1987 and remained with the company thereafter until mid 1990.
Jerry joined the newly formed ABC Productions in 1990 (following the FCC decision to allow networks to enter the television production business) as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where his responsibilities included supervision of all production, finance, post production and distribution activities for the company. During his tenure at ABC, the company produced approximately twenty movies and miniseries including the Emmy nominated An Incovenient Woman and the Emmy winning Broadway Bound and nine television series including the Commish and the landmark A So Called Life.
Jerry left ABC in January of 1994 to become President of Programming at Showtime Networks, a position he enjoyed for nine and a half years. During that time, he supervised all business and creative aspects of Showtime's programming, including its acquisition deals with Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate, as well as all aspects of Showtime's original programming slate. During his tenure, Showtime produced and/or commissioned approximately three hundred original films and approximately twenty television series, totaling in excess of fifteen hundred episodes. Over eighty of the movies and series were nominated for Emmy Awards and two were nominated for Oscars [see award section below]. Amongst the series he put on the air were Stargate, The Outer Limits, Soul Food, Queer As Folk, The L Word and Penn and Teller's Bullshit, all of which ran five years or longer.
Jerry left Showtime in the summer of 2003 and started Parkchester Pictures with a staff of three employees. Since that time, Jerry has developed approximately thirty two television series at fourteen different television networks, and executive produced ten independent films and documentaries.
Recent film projects include Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks starring Oscar nominees Gena Rowlands, Rita Moreno and Jacki Weaver. Additionally, Jerry executive produced Shot with Greatpoint Media, starring Noah Wyle and directed by Jeremy Kagan. Jerry also executive produced Robert Port's Recon which will be released in the Fall of 2020.
In addition to producing, Jerry has served as an expert witness on seven cases in both the motion picture and television businesses.
Amongst the awards that Jerry has received during his career are the Governor's Award from the Television Academy, the Program Executive of the Year Award from the Caucus of Producers, Writers and Directors, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jewish Image Awards and the Bill of Rights Award from the ACLU.
Jerry and his wife Pam are the proud parents of four children: Rick 36 (wife Charlotte, grandchildren Eliana and Thomas), Greg 35 (wife Briana), Sammie 28 (husband Andrew), and Max 27.
