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Tony Jonas is one of the television industry's most respected executives. A veteran of over 25 years in the entertainment business, he now heads up his own production company, Tony Jonas Productions, which presently resides at Disney Studios in association with Touchstone Television.
Tony Jonas Productions has produced four series since its inception. The first is Showtime network's #1 hit drama, Queer as Folk (2000), deemed one of television's "most daring and controversial series." The company has just begun production on the fifth season of the award-winning series.
Also for Showtime, Jonas served as Executive Producer of the drama series entitled "Leap Years," a 20-episode order, which tracked six friends' evolving relationships over a fourteen year span. More recently, Jonas served as Executive Producer for the ABC 2003 mid-season comedy, "Lost At Home," where a successful advertising man tries to reclaim his neglected wife and almost-grown children. Presently, Jonas serves as Executive Producer of ABC's much-heralded limited series, "Empire" - six episodes about the gladiators and successors to Julius Caesar's murder. It is the most expensive drama series production in network history and was filmed entirely in Rome to capture the realities of 44 B.C.
As an executive, Jonas most recently served as President, Warner Bros. Television, a position he held from 1995 through l999. Under his leadership, Warner Bros. Television, featured such projects as "ER," "Friends," "The Drew Carey Show," "The West Wing," "Third Watch," "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," "Living Single," "The Parenthood," "Jamie Foxx," and "Murphy Brown." Every year the company maintained an extraordinary average of 22 on-air series and maintained its leadership as television's leading supplier of prime-time television. Off-network, WBTV produced USA cable's signature hit "La Femme Nikita," and TNT's "Bull," and "Witchblade." Jonas also led Warner Bros. Television in the largest re-negotiation for TV series rights in history - securing with NBC a three-year renewal for "ER" which totalled nearly one billion dollars.
Jonas originally joined Warner Bros. (then Lorimar Television) in 1989 as Senior Vice President, Drama Development. In the years following, the company became the undisputed leader of the drama series genre in both quality and volume. He supervised development on the Emmy® Award-winning dramas "I'll Fly Away," "Homefront," "Reasonable Doubts," "Gabriel's Fire" and "Sisters."
In June of 1991, Jonas was promoted to Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs, in charge of all series development encompassing comedy, drama and reality programming. Under a mandate to expand the comedy division, as well as attract formidable talent behind the camera, Jonas supervised development that ultimately resulted in the long-running hits: "Living Single," "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper," "Step by Step" and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." The subsequent re-signing of producer John Wells, coupled with Michael Crichton and the retainer of high-profile producers Bright/Kauffman/Crane, Bruce Helford and Aaron Sorkin resulted in not only "ER," "Friends," and "The Drew Carey Show," but the series "Jesse," "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", "West Wing," and "Third Watch," and the multiple Emmy-winning hit, "The West Wing."
Before Jonas joined Warner Bros. Television, his executive background included three years as Vice President, Development at Disney Television; Senior Executive in Charge of Development for Winkler/Rich Productions at Paramount; Vice President, Dramatic Series and Long-Form Programming for MGM/UA Television Group; Director of Dramatic Series for Aaron Spelling Productions and Associate Producer, EMI Television, Inc.
In 1984, while at Paramount Television, Jonas created the ABC action drama, "MacGyver", for ABC, which Winkler-Rich Productions produced for four years. It became a worldwide hit.
Jonas is a Board Director of KCET and past-president of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Santa Monica Rape Foundation and honorary board member of the Lilli Claire Foundation.
