Kirk Thatcher

Kirk R. Thatcher is an Emmy award winning writer/producer, a multiple Webby award winning director, and a production designer with a penchant for special effects, strange creatures, and comedic characters with irreverent personalities. He worked closely with Leonard Nimoy, who referred to him as a "genius." Recently, he was called "Jim Henson's protege" by Jim's daughter, Lisa, at a press event.

Kirk began his career at 18 years old, leaving UCLA film school to work at George Lucas’ special effects facility, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in the early 1980’s. While there, Kirk designed, built, and puppeteered creatures for the classic and beloved films Return of the Jedi, Star Trek II, Star Trek III, E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins.

He left ILM to form a rock video production company with David Fincher called, “Z Street Films.” Kirk was the production designer on Fincher’s first music videos and spent over a year creating the look for a number of Rick Springfield and Martha Davis and the Motels videos. Subsequently, Thatcher was hired by Leonard Nimoy to associate produce Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, in which Kirk had a memorable cameo, portraying the character “Punk on the Bus” who was seen rocking out to the Punk anthem, “I Hate You!” a song he both wrote and sang.

Kirk’s first directorial effort was in 2003, with It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie for NBC, which drew more than 11 million viewers. The New York Times said, “…this film’s many moments of Muppet magic are enough to make audiences wonder if Henson doesn’t still have a hand in things…So to speak.” The Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter and hundreds of other reviewers sang the praises of the film, and, at the time, Entertainment Weekly even claimed it was the best Muppet film made in the last 18 years. Mr. Thatcher has co-written several Muppet films including the much beloved film Muppet Treasure Island, and directed three television movies, including the holiday favorite Muppets Letters to Santa and the wonderful The Muppets Wizard of Oz, which premiered at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival.

In addition to his film success, Kirk Thatcher has also had great success on in the world of television. He was a Supervising Producer on the Emmy Award winning ABC series, Muppets Tonight. Before this, Kirk worked at Walt Disney Imagineering as a Show Designer and also collaborated closely with Jim Henson as an “idea guy,” designing characters and brainstorming concepts for sketches and shows. This collaboration with Jim Henson led to the award-winning television series Dinosaurs (1991). In addition to creating and designing all the characters on the show, Kirk was instrumental in developing the concept of the series as well as its overall look and feel, which won Emmy awards for Art Direction and Production Design. Kirk Thatcher wrote, produced, voiced characters, and acted on the series. Mr. Thatcher won Environmental Media awards for two of his scripts that dealt with pollution and conservation.

He also directed NBC’s Muppet Christmas special, Muppets Letters to Santa featuring Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman and Jane Krakowski. Kirk has also written episodes for the Cartoon Network series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and directed episodes of Nickelodeon’s series Lazy Town, PBS’ Sid the Science Kid and Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers.

Mr. Thatcher’s talents can additionally be found on YouTube and on music video channels throughout the world. Kirk has also directed over twenty Muppet viral videos, including the Muppets’ “Bohemian Rhapsody” which received two Webby awards and over 48 million hits worldwide... and counting! He has directed numerous Muppet commercials for Subway, Toyota, Lufthansa Airlines and the award-winning commercial campaign for the Disney theme parks featuring the Muppets in and around Disneyland promoting the “Give A Day – Get a Day” volunteer program. Among his additional credit, Kirk directed a Muppet music video with the band, OK GO, as well as a theatrical Public Service Announcement for the European telecommunications company, Orange, two national spots for Alamo Rent a Car Company, and a milk commercial for the British milk brand, Cravendale.

Kirk Thatcher’s personal belief in the need to focus on environmental issues also played a part in some of his work. Kirk continued his tradition of creating stories and characters that support environmental awareness, as the key creative writer and concept developer for the website Green.com, where he imagined entire worlds and characters, games and web apps, all with an eye towards fun and creativity in a “kid-safe” environmentally themed web destination.

In 2013, Mr. Thatcher directed a computer-animated feature film in 3D for the Jim Henson Company, entitled, Sid the Science Kid’s Super Museum Adventure, which required the use of both motion capture and traditional computer animation, which is similar to the methods used to create the film Avatar.

In 2014, Kirk Thatcher was seen on the SyFy Network’s series, “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge,” where he was a judge for the entire competition. Mr. Thatcher was seen on each episode, narrowing down a group of Creature Designers who competed against each other to create puppets and animatronics such as those found in science fiction, comedy and kids' and family shows. Newsday rated the show with an A-, saying: "We don't just watch art being made, we come to understand the process." Entertainment Weekly awarded it an "A" rating, calling it "Wildly refreshing…" and saying "...you've never seen a reality show like this."

In 2015, Kirk wrote and directed Turkey Hollow, a Thanksgiving-themed TV movie for Lifetime network, for the Jim Henson Company. The film stars Oscar Winner Mary Steenburgen and Jay Harrington and focuses on a family’s adventures with a mysterious group of magical, musical creatures.

Recently, his Muppet commercial for Warburtons new Giant Crumpets became an international success, garnering hundreds of thousands of YouTube views in its first day, as well as a large amount of twitter support. His Muppet commercials also air in Europe, for major national and international companies. It was named Best Christmas Advert of 2015. This is the top advertising award handed out and shows the growth in Thatcher's overall abilities and sensibilities.