BRENDAN BURNS
PRODUCER / SCREENWRITER
Producer/Screenwriter/Actor has worked extensively in film, television and the theater, opposite such luminaries as Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, Marisa Tomei, Kathleen Quinlan and Stephen Hopkins to name a few.
Paramount Pictures optioned Burns original screenplay, "VTV" with William Sackheim producing and Burns receiving the rewriting assignment. Burns developed "The Atomic Veteran", a MOW based on the original play for Jaffe/Braunstein Films. Mr. Burns' original screenplay, "Devil Jocks" was optioned by James Keach and Emerald Eyes Productions with Burns executive producing. His story and treatment "Hidden Valor" - "Women of the SOE", was first optioned by the producing team of Sanford/Pillsbury.
As a stage producer, Brendan, through special arrangement with Joseph Papp, moved the Lincoln Center Production of Michael Dorn Moody's Obie Award-winning play, "The Shortchanged Review" to the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles for its West Coast premiere. The production received wide acclaim from LA critics and went on to win eleven awards ranging from production design, performance, to two Best Production awards for Burns. Brendan was company manager and later co-producer of Arthur Miller's, "After the Fall" by special arrangement with Mr. Miller himself. Victor French and Julie Cobb headed the cast with Harris Yulin directing. The production received a host of honors including the LA Drama Critics Circle Best Actress award for Ms. Cobb and a nomination for Best Production of the Year. Brendan produced and directed the premiere of "Time Will Tell", written by Bart Burns & Timothy C. Burns at the Company of Angels Theatre. The show opened to rave reviews and garnered numerous awards.
Burns served as executive in charge of the transformation of Stage Nine at Hollywood Center Studios into a four-hundred seat Equity theater. Under his guidance the facility became an Equity theater equipped for taping multiple-camera, live stage productions. Mr. Burns produced and directed commercial spots for the Stage Nine Complexes maiden production of "Gaslight", which aired on Charles Kuralt's America.
As an actor, Brendan's feature films include, "The Last Tycoon", written by Harold Pinter and directed by Elia Kazan, "Raise the Titanic" and "Blown Away" with Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. Television credits include guest and co-starring roles in over sixty television series and movies, most prominently; "The Ordeal of Patty Hearst", "Lanigan's Rabbi" and "Uncommon Valor". Brendan is familiar to audiences worldwide as District Attorney, Glenn Richards, appearing in over two hundred episodes of the Emmy Award-winning, internationally syndicated daytime drama, "The Young and the Restless".
Mr. Burns has served as a judge at the University of Southern California's Masters Thesis Play Writing Competition and currently serves on the advisory boards for both the Los Angeles Valley College Broadcasting and Theatre Arts Departments.