UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television Names Brian Kite As Interim Dean

Brian Kite has been named interim dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television. He takes over on January 1 for Dean Teri Schwartz, who is stepping down at month’s end.

“Chancellor Block and I appreciate Brian’s willingness to serve as interim dean, and we have every confidence in his ability to provide strong leadership and continuity for the school,” said Emily Carter, UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

Kite currently serves as the special academic senior associate dean at the school and has been chair of the theater department since joining UCLA in 2015 as a professor. Prior to that he was the producing artistic director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and directed many of its productions, including Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, Little Shop of Horrors, Dinner with Friends, Driving Miss Daisy and Proof.

He earned an Ovation Award for Spring Awakening and earned Ovation noms for helming Les Misérables and American Idiot. He directed the national tours of Steel Magnolias, Judgment at Nuremberg, In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate and Pride and Prejudice and staged the first production of Miss Saigon ever to play in China.

Kite is a chair emeritus of the Board of Governors of the L.A. Stage Alliance, holds an appointment as a visiting professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and is the artistic director of the Buffalo Nights Theatre Company.