Ken Peragine
- Writer
- Producer
Ken grew up on the East Coast competing in multiple sports. In his last year of high school he was offered a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants before an injury curtailed any athletic possibilities. In college he was asked to appear as a panelist on William F. Buckley Jr.'s TV show "Firing Line." Although Ken and Buckley butted heads, their mutual respect grew into a friendship. Looking at life through an oblique lens, Ken started writing comedy material for various stand-up comedians. Jerry Seinfeld's manager, George Shapiro, admired Ken's freewheeling comedy mind and encouraged him to write scripts. Interestingly, it was George and his partner, Howard West, Seinfeld producers, who later represented Ken. They were directly involved in negotiations with CAA, and Francie Calfo, President of Imagine TV, for Ken's comedy pilot script to be put under the Shapiro/West banner.
A Newhart episode Ken co-wrote aired on TV while he was still going to school. It was his first script sale. Of course the first person he called to celebrate with was George. Learning to rein in his surrealistic writing impulses to fit a more conventional template, Ken moved on to pen numerous TV comedies (executive-story editor), TV network pilots (ABC, CBS), TV movies (Disney, Lifetime), and feature films (Warner Bros). During this period, he had overall deals at Viacom and Disney to write and produce and subsequently an office at Universal.
Independently he's authored projects for producers Laura Ziskin, Steve Stark, Margaret French Isaac and Mike Medavoy, as well as being regularly employed as a script doctor.
His professional friends include Jay Leno, Nicole Fox, and before their passing, Bob Saget and Richard Lewis. He called Bob his older, wiser brother, who always had his back, and Richard one of his closest friends. Ken has kept all of the texts and emails from Bob and Richard and considers them a calming presence in his life. He even held on to a funny, rambling 30 minute answering machine message once left by Richard. In fact, Richard was still talking when the tape ran out... And, if you run into Ken, ask him about the time a bird flew into his head while he was pitching a Seinfeld episode to Larry David, which was set up by Richard - the meeting, not the bird.
Due to a female stalker, and a DMV scandal involving identity theft, where Ken and others were victims of online misinformation, Ken was advised to restrict contact information and some personal details from the Bio.
A Newhart episode Ken co-wrote aired on TV while he was still going to school. It was his first script sale. Of course the first person he called to celebrate with was George. Learning to rein in his surrealistic writing impulses to fit a more conventional template, Ken moved on to pen numerous TV comedies (executive-story editor), TV network pilots (ABC, CBS), TV movies (Disney, Lifetime), and feature films (Warner Bros). During this period, he had overall deals at Viacom and Disney to write and produce and subsequently an office at Universal.
Independently he's authored projects for producers Laura Ziskin, Steve Stark, Margaret French Isaac and Mike Medavoy, as well as being regularly employed as a script doctor.
His professional friends include Jay Leno, Nicole Fox, and before their passing, Bob Saget and Richard Lewis. He called Bob his older, wiser brother, who always had his back, and Richard one of his closest friends. Ken has kept all of the texts and emails from Bob and Richard and considers them a calming presence in his life. He even held on to a funny, rambling 30 minute answering machine message once left by Richard. In fact, Richard was still talking when the tape ran out... And, if you run into Ken, ask him about the time a bird flew into his head while he was pitching a Seinfeld episode to Larry David, which was set up by Richard - the meeting, not the bird.
Due to a female stalker, and a DMV scandal involving identity theft, where Ken and others were victims of online misinformation, Ken was advised to restrict contact information and some personal details from the Bio.