JOSEPH STERN
Joesph Stern is a veteran of theatre, film, and television. In the last 40 years, he has produced more than 50 plays and over 300 television episodes, as well as numerous long-form specials and films. He has had several overall deals, and his development amounted to over twenty pilot scripts, eleven of which were shot and six that made it to series. Stern produced the pilot for the long-running hit show Law & Order and served as the Executive Producer for the first three seasons. It garnered two of his six Emmy nominations and two Golden Globes. His groundbreaking CBS special, Other Mothers, about alternative lifestyles, was honored with seven Emmy nominations, three wins, and his second GLAAD award. Stern produced Our America for Showtime. It was selected to play at Sundance and won the coveted Humanitas Award and four Emmy nominations. During this time, he also produced Judging Amy and served as the Executive Producer for the pilot and the six-year run. Stern’s film work includes Dad for Steven Spielberg, which starred Academy Award winners Jack Lemmon and Olympia Dukakis, and the cult hit film No Man’s Land with Charlie Sheen. Stern also produced Believe for NBC, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, for J.J. Abram’s company Bad Robot. Mr. Stern’s The Matrix Theatre Company has just completed a 10-year cycle of plays dealing with race, including five of America’s finest female African American playwrights. No producer has been honored as much in Los Angeles theatre. His productions at the Matrix Theatre and other venues have garnered more awards than any other 99-seat house, including numerous Ovations, L.A. Weekly (39), Drama-Logue and Backstage Garland (130), and L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards (44). Most recently, an extended run of Geraldine Inoa’s (The Walking Dead) Scraps, which garnered 5 Ovation nominations.
Preceding that was a production of The Mountaintop by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Kartori Hall, the story of the last night of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. The production was moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s death. On the heels was a production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 that garnered 4 LA Weekly Awards, including best production and an LADCC Award for Best Ensemble in 2014. His multi-ethnic production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons received numerous awards, including LA Drama Critics, an NAACP for Best Ensemble, and the Asian Pacific American (APAFT) Outstanding Artist Award. In 2010, Neighbors by Tony Award-winning playwright Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins received multiple LADCC and BackStage awards and was nominated for four Ovations, including Best Play. The play also successfully ran at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. In 2010, his production of Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for production, as well as L.A. Weekly, BackStage, and Ovation awards for writing and ensemble. A production recently played on Broadway. LADCC awards include consecutive Outstanding Production Awards for The Tavern, The Seagull, The Homecoming, Outstanding Ensemble for Mad Forest, and 4 LADCC awards for The Water Children. The Birthday Party was named Best Revival Production by the L.A. Weekly and received numerous nominations and awards, including 5 LADCC nominations. The Pulitzer Prize-winning No Place to Be Somebody received 8 NAACP Awards. His world premiere production of Orphans moved to the Steppenwolf and then onto Off-Broadway before becoming a feature film. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Margaret Harford Award given by the LADCC and the Drama-Logue Publisher/Critics Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement. He was further honored with August Wilson at the Ovation Awards, receiving the first James A. Dolittle Award for Leadership in Los Angeles theatre. In 2024, he received the Gordon Davidson Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Los Angeles Theater Community, presented by The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. Mr. Stern is currently in post-production on Someone Saved My Life, the sophomore directing effort of Angelo Pizzo (Hoosiers, Rudy).