John Kent Harrison is a film and television director and writer who is best known for his work in the international mini-series format. He is currently writing Fur Trading In America, a novel based on his canoe trip from London Ontario to New Orleans in the summer of 1969.
Before his directing debut, JKH was Assistant Professor of film studies at Concordia University in Montreal, taught screenwriting at UCLA and more recently, advanced film production at the Graduate School of Cinema at the University of Southern California. From 2015-2017 JKH directed three TV movies based on the novel, 'Anne of Green Gables' by L. M. Montgomery. The first film won the 2016 Shaw Rocket Prize and First Prize at 2017 Kidfest. In 2014 he directed his eighth Hallmark Hall of Fame, 'Christmas in Conway', with Andy Garcia and Mary Louise Parker. His previous Hall of Fame was The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. It won an Emmy Award and was nominated for three, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Anna Paquin. In 2010 the film was honored by the DGA with a nomination for John Kent Harrison as Best Television Director of the year. Other projects include which received a SAG nomination for Winona Ryder, William Faulkner's Old Man, one of the most critically acclaimed Hallmark presentations, which won two Emmy Awards, the Humanities Prize, the Christopher Medal and a Golden Reel. Other Hallmarks include The Water Is Wide, which received two Emmy nominations; What the Deaf Man Heard, which was nominated for an Emmy as Best Television Movie of the year and has been the highest-rated stand-alone 2- hour TV movie since 1991 and one of the most watched Hallmark Hall of Fame movies in history. According to Hallmark Hall of Fame statistics, Harrison’s 7 Hall of Fame movies have captured a total audience of 120 million viewers. In 2003 he co-wrote and directed A Bear Named Winnie, which became one of the highest rated 2-hour TV movies in Canadian history and was nominated for four Genie awards, winning two. Two years later he wrote and directed the Emmy-nominated miniseries, Pope John Paul II, starring Jon Voight. Also in the four-hour miniseries format, JKH directed Helen of Troy, which won an Emmy, A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Best Feature Film Award at the International Children's Film Festival in Toronto in 2003 and The Sound and the Silence, which won the CableACE Award for Best Foreign Television Movie of the Year. In the last fifteen years, Mr. Harrison has directed and written numerous other award-winning films. Among these, one of the most memorable is You Know My Name, a two-hour he wrote and directed for Sam Elliott and TNT. It won the coveted Wrangler Award for Best Western Television Movie of the year at The Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Personal life
John Kent Harrison is a Canadian and American citizen. He presently lives in Portland, OR. In his spare time he writes fiction and enjoys giving professional workshops in advanced filmmaking.
