Fran Rubel Kuzui is an American film director and producer. She directed the films '' Tokyo Pop'' (1988) and '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992). She also produced the films ''

Orgazmo ''Orgazmo'' is a 1997 American superhero sex comedy film written, directed and edited by Trey Parker and produced by Matt Stone, Jason McHugh, and Fran Rubel Kuzui. It stars Parker, Stone, Dian Bachar, Robyn Lynne, and Michael Dean Jacobs ...

'' (1997) and '' Telling Lies in America'' (1997).

Biography

Kuzui received her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and was a script supervisor for a decade, prior to her first film, 1988's '' Tokyo Pop'', which she co-wrote and directed. The movie was shown at the 1988

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

and received critical acclaim for its depiction of an American woman trying to make sense of the Japanese youth culture. She is best known as the director of the 1992 film '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (which was the basis for the

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

). She discovered the screenplay of writer Joss Whedon, expanded the Buffy character with him, and together with producer Kaz Kuzui put together the financing to produce the picture. Kuzui served as an executive producer on the TV series and its spin-off '' Angel'', having packaged ''Buffy'' along with Kaz Kuzui, Sandollar TV's Gail Berman and Sandy Gallin. Since 2000, Kuzui has lived in Tokyo. Along with husband Kaz Kuzui, she founded Kuzui Enterprises, a leader in independent film distribution in Japan that distributes U.S. films there and imports Japanese films for the U.S. market. In 2003, the Kuzuis were among the executive producers for the Thai-Japanese film '' Last Life in the Universe''. In 1997, Kuzui began working with Trey Parker and

Matt Stone Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon (musical), The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his cre ...

and produced their film ''

''. The Kuzuis also localized and distributed the duo's TV series ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' in Japan. Kuzui Enterprises was among the financiers for ''Orgazmo'' and '' Telling Lies in America''. The Kuzuis worked with artist Keith Haring to establish Pop Shop Tokyo, an art project recognized by museums around the world. In 2018, it was reported that the Kuzuis are involved with the development of a reboot of ''Buffy''. Kuzui is a contributing writer at the Nikkei Asian Review and Tokyo bureau chief for Culinary Backstreets.

Filmography

Feature films

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people New York University alumni {{US-film-director-stub Film directors from New York City Film producers from New York City American women film directors American women film producers American comedy film directors