Tom Musca

Tom Musca first captured attention as the producer and co-writer of STAND AND DELIVER. The popular Warner Bros. film starred Edward James Olmos, who earned Best Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and featured Lou Diamond Phillips and Andy Garcia. Stand and Deliver nabbed six Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. In addition to winning the Imagen Award, the Christopher Award and the Nosotros Golden Eagle Award, the film was preserved as a cultural, artistic and historical treasure in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress. Musca wrote the screenplay for ONE MILE NORTH, a story about a restaurant near Ground Zero and the recovery workers who frequented it. Other projects in development include: THE BELL, a horror film set in the Caribbean, produced by Casa Grande Interactive; I LOVE LUPE, a comedy under option; MUNOZ, a biopic about the politician/poet who created Puerto Rico's commonwealth; BETTER THAN GOLD, a love story with an Olympic backdrop; EISENHOWER'S PLAYBOYS, a WWII action film; LONE WOLF--The Pancho Gonzalez Story for HBO; and KINGZ, a high school chess movie currently under option by John Leguizamo. Musca is also Associate Producer of PRAYING FOR RAIN, a drought farm drama slated to open in 2017. Musca co-wrote TORTILLA SOUP, starring Hector Elizondo, Raquel Welch and Elizabeth Pena. The comedy was an Imagen Award Best Feature Film winner and an Alma Award nominee for Outstanding Screenplay, and it is the third highest selling Latino-themed DVD in history. Musca co-wrote Disney Channel's GOTTA KICK IT UP!--a school dance extravaganza starring two-time Emmy winner America Ferrera. It was the #1 cable show of 2003 among pre-teen girls. Musca also produced and co-wrote Hollywood Pictures' MONEY FOR NOTHING, which starred John Cusack. The L.A. Times proclaimed the film "A Winner!" while CBS radio praised it as "Extremely Entertaining." The 1994 film jump-started the careers of James Gandolfini, Benicio del Toro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Rapaport, Debi Mazar and Michael Madsen. Musca made his feature film directorial debut with RACE, a comedic take on an L.A. City Council election, starring Oscar winner Cliff Robertson, Paul Rodriguez, Emmy nominated actors CCH Pounder and Peter Krause and introducing Effrem Ramirez . Variety lauded the film as "Brisk, colorful and quirky. A funny social satire." A film festival favorite, RACE premiered on HBO and was an Imagen Award finalist and the Grand Prize Winner of the Saguaro Film Festival. Tom Musca is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers and went on to earn a Masters of Fine Arts at UCLA where he collected two student Emmys, twice won the Rod Serling award, was a Samuel Goldwyn Award finalist and took home first prize in the AFI Video Festival for a comedy he wrote and directed that was broadcast on PBS two decades before indie video features were in vogue. Musca handled video camera chores in Alex Cox's underground classic REPO MAN while also finding time to act in a Red Hot Chili Peppers music video. Immediately after graduation, Musca sold his first screenplay, LITTLE NIKITA. This Columbia Pictures release starred Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix. Other produced feature film credits include producing, co-writing and aerial unit directing FLIGHT FOR FANCY for the Showtime network. This whimsical fantasy starred Dean Cain, Talisa Soto and Miguel Sandoval and won both Best Family Film and Best Latin Film at the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival. Produced network television credits include working as Executive Story Consultant and writing several episodes of the NBC television series YOU AGAIN? starring Jack Klugman and John Stamos. Musca also developed two prime-time dramatic pilots: BOTANICA for Warner Bros. Television and CBS, as well as MARIA, A Christmas Story for The Disney Channel. Musca's legit credits include adapting STAND AND DELIVER for the stage, where it averages two-dozen domestic and international productions per annum. He was the Executive Producer of NAMES, Mark Kemble's blacklist drama, that starred Dixie Carter and was among National Public Radio's Top Ten plays for 1996 and Critic's Choice in the L.A. Times. In 2016 he co-produced Kemble's BAD HURT, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Musca's short story, RECENT FOSSIL EVIDENCE, from the novel co-written with Jay Abramowitz entitled FORMERLY COOL, debuted on Nikki Finke's website HollywoodDementia.com. Tom Musca is also a sought-after Creative Consultant for various filmmakers and production companies. He was an Editorial Consultant on Amy Berg's 2006 Oscar nominated documentary DELIVER US FROM EVIL, and consults and direct videos for Operacion-Exito, an online academic quiz game for teens. Musca has served on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University and conducted master classes at the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters. He has been a guest lecturer at the Sundance Institute, Slamdance, UCLA, NYU, USC and the AFI International Film Festival among others, and has conducted MPAA workshops on screenwriting and producing on four continents. He was named the Moseley Fellow for Creative Writing at Pomona College for 2006-2007 and headed the screenwriting faculty for the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive. Currently, he is the Coordinator of the MFA Screenwriting Concentration at the University of Miami where he won the ROBERT AND CHRISTINE STAUB Faculty Excellence Award 2014 presented by School of Communication students and faculty colleagues in recognition of outstanding achievement in teaching.