Biography for
Jonathan Karsh More at IMDbPro »

Mini Biography

Jonathan Karsh grew up in Sacramento, California, and graduated from Rio Americano High School in 1990. Other film and television personalities who hail from this school include Barbi Benton, Merrin Dungey, and Harry Dehaven. Jonathan also played percussion in the Sacramento Youth Symphony for several years. It was clear from his high school days that Jonathan was going to be a very talented film maker. He won the coveted "Apollo Award" as one of the outstanding students in media his senior year. Rio Americano boasts very demanding classes in Radio & TV and Public Speaking. Some of Jonathan's favorite films during these years were the creatively edited 'Throw Momma from the Train'_ and the Cohen brothers' 'Blood Simple'_. Jonathan also had the opportunity to host a locally-produced TV magazine show called "Scratch" through Sacramento's CBS (now ABC) affiliate. This show won a cable Emmy and gave Jonathan the experience he needed to continue in a televison career. One of his co-hosts on scratch, was Del Campo High School graduate Lisa Ling, who went on to co-host 'The View'_ with Barbara Wallace.

Mini Biography

Jonathan Karsh is the winner of the Audience Award and Best Director Award from the 2003 Sundance Film Festival for his directorial debut - the highly acclaimed documentary "My Flesh and Blood" that aired on HBO in 2004. The film went on to win the Emmy for Best Documentary, and the top awards at the Amsterdam International Film Festival and Prague International Film Festival.

Karsh later made documentary films for MTV and AMC, and produced reality shows for CBS, ABC, and ABC Family.

Karsh was recently tapped to host the new CBS reality show "Kid Nation" which will air in the fall of 2007.

Mini Biography

Emmy Award-winning host Jonathan Karsh helped develop "Kid Nation" and serves as the show's host, as well as its supervising producer.

In 2003, Karsh won both the Best Director Award and Audience Award from the Sundance Film Festival for his directorial debut, "My Flesh and Blood." The documentary was broadcast on HBO and won a News and Documentary Emmy Award the following year. Hailed by The New York Times as "an unforgettable experience," the film won audience awards and critics awards from film festivals around the world.

Since then, Karsh directed, produced and shot MTV's "True Life" series and directed a film for AMC. He served as the co-executive producer for the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" hurricane specials on ABC.

Prior to his work behind the camera, Karsh began hosting when he was 18 years old. He started his career as co-host of a weekly show on KXTV-TV in his hometown of Sacramento, Calif. From there, he became the youngest correspondent for the national news show "Channel One" and the syndicated magazine show "American Journal." Later, he hosted the Discovery Channel cooking show "Epicurious" and the nightly entertainment program "Evening Magazine" on KPIX-TV, the CBS owned station in San Francisco.

A graduate of the University of California at Davis, Karsh lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 1-year-old daughter.

Where Are They Now

(January 2005) "Extreme Makeover Home Edition: How'd They Do That? Producer

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