Donna Kanter

Writer, producer, director, The Kanter Company, Inc.

Writer-producer-director Donna Kanter is owner of The Kanter Company, Inc. She has launched 14 reality series and films, directed the pilot Rescue 911 (CBS), created the first drama-reality hybrid series, FBI: The Untold Stories (ABC), the series Inside The Yellow Line (TruTV), Cold Case Cops (Discovery), and the 2010 pilot, FBI: CSIs (A&E). She is developing The E Team and writing the feature, Friends for Life. In 2009, Donna wrote and directed F.L.I.P. Mysteries, about Internet private eyes, for WE tv, and the documentary LUNCH, featuring seven comedy writers and the waitress who inevitably steps on their punch lines. Other credits include: The Vatican, Inside the White House, Lucy: Queen of Comedy, Murder on the Move (Discovery); four seasons of Badge of Courage (TruTV), Save Our Streets and the pilot Payback (NBC). Donna is executive producer and writer of three television movies: Aftermath (CBS), The Flood and The Last Victim (NBC). Raised in an atmosphere of comedy writers and publishers, Donna gravitated to labor and investigative reporting at KING-TV Seattle, then Newsweek. She became ABC foreign editor and was the first producer in Guyana after the Jonestown massacre. She covered the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, the papal elections and hunt for the Red Brigades in Rome, and was senior producer for David Brinkley. A graduate of UC Berkeley and trained as a calligrapher with artist Corita Kent, Donna earned her M.A. in romance languages from the University of Florence. She left doctoral studies on WWII Italy at UCLA and Yale to work for Ralph Nader and the FCC. As a member of the 2010 DGA Workshop, Donna wrote and directed Friends for Life, based on the November 2009 release of the Paulist Press book she edited about feature-film stillman Louis Goldman and the Italian priests who saved his life during WWII. A two-time Emmy recipient and honoree of the AFI's Directing Workshop for Women, Donna Kanter is a member of the WGA, DGA, and AFTRA. She was Governor (Writers Peer Group) of the TV Academy from 2000-2005, was elected Governors’ representative to the Executive Committee, and TV Academy Treasurer from 2005 to February 2010.