Biography for
Brenda Brkusic More at IMDbPro »

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Brenda Brkusic is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and the Executive Producer of Program Development and National Productions for PBS SoCal in Southern California. She joined PBS SoCal (then KOCE) in 2006 as a producer for the Emmy Award-winning nightly news program Real Orange, before being asked to spearhead and manage PBS SoCal's new digital OC Channel. Her dedication to building the OC Channel's image and programming resulted in the creation of thousands of new local programs. Under her leadership the OC Channel has been called "The Next Generation of PBS" by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and won the 2010 My Source Education Innovation Award from CPB. Brenda Brkusic's films that have been featured on PBS SoCal include the multi-award winning film Freedom from Despair, starring Michael York and John Savage. The U.S. Congress recognized Freedom from Despair when Brenda was honored on the Congressional Record of the US House of Representatives for her work promoting human rights. Brenda was then asked to address members of the European Parliament at the International Leaders Summit in Brussels, Belgium, where the film was presented. Brenda was the executive producer for Bloody Thursday, an Emmy Award-winning film about the Pacific waterfront strike of 1934 that aired on PBS stations around the country. Brenda is a co-producer for Mia: A Dancer's Odyssey, a film about the life of famous ballerina Mia Slavenska, starring actress Blythe Danner. Brenda earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film and Television Production at Chapman University. She was previously featured as a "Top Business Executive under 40 Years Old" and a "Woman to Watch" in OC Metro Business Magazine. In her free time she serves as a Senior Fellow for Media Freedom Advancement at the Washington D.C.-based think tank, The Adriatic Institute for Public Policy. She is also the owner of Istina Productions, a documentary film production company in Southern California and she is a member of the Producers Guild of America.

Trivia

2009 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award Winner - Brenda Brkusic, Executive Producer of Bloody Thursday.