Kent Weed

Although best known for producing some of the most popular reality TV shows of the 2000s, Kent Weed also had a long and varied career as a television director. Since launching his directing career in the late 1980s, Weed helmed numerous variety programs, including a revival of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" (CBS 1988-89), as well as several competition cooking shows. However, producing is where Weed really made his mark in Hollywood, and in 2013 four of his primetime reality shows were airing on television simultaneously, thus making him one of the most successful television producers of his generation. The son of a prominent disc jockey father who later went on to have a successful directing career of his own, Weed began directing TV variety programs and music awards shows in his mid-20s. However, by the late '90s, Weed wanted to have a bigger role in the shows he was directing and set out to become a producer. In 2000 he started the A. Smith Production Company, along with his longtime friend Arthur Smith. Although it got off to a slow start, by the mid-2000s Weed's company had produced several primetime reality shows, including "The Swan" (Fox 2004), "Pros Vs. Joes" (MTV2 2006-2010), and "Hell's Kitchen" (Fox 2005- ), the last of which starred celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Weed and his company continued its string of successful reality shows in the 2010s, producing "Kitchen Nightmares" (an adaptation of a show Ramsay had hosted in his native U.K.) and "American Ninja Warrior" (G4 2009- and NBC 2012- ). In addition to producing, Weed also served as director on several of his shows, including "The Swan" and "Kitchen Nightmares." In 2012 he directed a few episodes of the dating game show "The Choice" (Fox 2012), while also serving as the show's executive producer.