Kurt Sutter (born 1960) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He worked as a writer, director, and executive producer on The Shield, and appeared on the show as hitman Margos Dezerian. Sutter is also the creator of Sons of Anarchy and its spinoff Mayans M.C. on FX; he wrote, produced, and directed the series, as well as played incarcerated club member Otto Delaney. Sutter spent time with members of an outlaw motorcycle club in Northern California as research for Sons of Anarchy. Sutter's wife, actress Katey Sagal, played main character Gemma Teller.
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Early life
Sutter was born in Rahway, New Jersey. His father worked at the General Motors plant in Linden, New Jersey, and his mother was a secretary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. He has two older sisters. He grew up in the township of Clark, New Jersey, and graduated from Roselle Catholic High School in 1982.
Sutter attended Livingston College for the journalism department of Rutgers University—which was located there—eventually graduating from Rutgers University with a BA in mass media with a minor in English in 1986. He moved to New York City and studied Meisner technique, did theater, and taught at the Gately/Poole Conservatory. Sutter then attended Northern Illinois University for three years, starting in 1997, to obtain his M.F.A. in performance and directing.
Career
Sutter was hired as a staff writer for the first season of FX crime drama The Shield in 2002. He made his television acting debut with the episode "Blowback", in which he appeared as Armenian mob hitman Margos Dezerian. He co-wrote the episodes "Dragonchasers" and "Two Days of Blood" with fellow staff writer Scott Rosenbaum, and was promoted to story editor for the second season in 2003. He wrote the episodes "Scar Tissue" and "Dead Soldiers", and in 2004 he joined the production team in the junior role of co-producer for the third season. He continued to write episodes, scripting "Playing Tight" and "Mum" with series creator and executive producer Shawn Ryan; creating "Slipknot" solo; and writing "Fire in the Hole" with consulting producer Charles H. Eglee. Sutter reprised his role as Dezerian in the season's final episodes "All In" and "On Tilt".
Sutter was promoted to supervising producer for the fourth season of The Shield in 2005. He wrote the episode "Grave" solo; co-wrote the story for the episode "Judas Priest" with Eglee; and co-wrote the teleplay with Rosenbaum. He co-wrote the story for the season finale "Ain't That a Shame" with Ryan; Ryan co-wrote the teleplay for the episode with co-executive producer Glen Mazzara. Sutter became a co-executive producer for the fifth season in 2006. He wrote the episode "Extraction"; co-wrote the episode "Trophy" with Renee Palya and Tony Soltis; and co-wrote the season's penultimate episode "Fire in the Hole" with Eglee.
Sutter became an executive producer for the sixth season in 2007, directed a promotional mini-episode for that season titled "Wins and Losses," and wrote the sixth-season premiere "On the Jones". He co-wrote the episode "Exiled" with Rosenbaum, also now an executive producer.
Sutter returned as an executive producer and writer for the seventh and final season in 2008. He wrote the premiere "Coefficient of Drag", and he co-wrote the episode "Parricide" with Gary Lennon. At the close of the season Sutter was the series' second most prolific writer (after Ryan), having written or co-written 18 episodes total.
Also in 2008, Sutter created and executive produced a new series for FX titled Sons of Anarchy. The show centers on the titular motorcycle club in a fictitious town called Charming in California. He was the series head writer and showrunner. Along with the pilot episode he wrote the episodes "Seeds", "Fun Town", "Capybara", "The Sleep of Babies", and the season finale "The Revelator". He would go on to write 61 of the show's 92 episodes. Sutter appears in the show as incarcerated club member Otto Delaney, and he cast his wife Katey Sagal in the starring role as the club's matriarch Gemma Teller Morrow. Sutter also hired several crew members with whom he had worked on The Shield, including unit production manager and producer Kevin G. Cremin, post-production supervisor and producer Craig Yahata, and directors Guy Ferland, Stephen Kay, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Paris Barclay, Terrence O'Hara, and Billy Gierhart. The first season also featured The Shield star Jay Karnes as a recurring special guest star playing ATF Agent Joshua Kohn. This is a trend that continued in later seasons with the majority of the main cast of The Shield appearing in later episodes in a variety of different roles.
Comic books
In 2016, Sutter produced a six-issue comic book miniseries with Boom! Studios titled Lucas Stand. The first issue was released on June 1, 2016. He also worked on a comic book called Sisters of Sorrow; the book was launched at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con.
Projects in development
In May 2021, it was announced that Sutter would direct a horror film titled This Beast for Netflix. In November 2021, it was announced that he would create a western series titled The Abandons for Netflix.
Influences
Sutter has stated he's had multiple influences in his writing style, including William Shakespeare, specifically his play Hamlet. He based the characters of Sons of Anarchy on Hamlet. Other cultural influences include Mad Magazine, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the television show Hill Street Blues, among others.
Personal life
Sutter moved to Los Angeles in 2000. Sutter married actress Katey Sagal in a private ceremony on October 2, 2004, at their home in Los Feliz, California. Their first child, daughter Esme Louise, was born January 10, 2007. Esme was carried by a surrogate mother.
Sutter is an animal rights activist and is vegan. He is also a motorcycle enthusiast.
