Background
Kerner was born in Los Angeles, California.
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Jordan Kerner
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Education
Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley. University of California, Hastings College of the Law. University of Southern California.
Career
He began his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California. Kerner started off his career at Columbia Broadcasting System-television KPIX-San Francisco in San Francisco in 1971. In 1976, he became an attorney at the law firm of Ball, Hunt, Hart and Baerwitz.
In 1977, he left to join Columbia Broadcasting System Entertainment as a program and talent negotiator.
In 1978, he then switched to Universal Television for National Broadcasting Company, taking the position of assistant to the senior VP. Two years later, he also took on the task of director of program development QM Productions. The following year, he changed jobs and became the director of dramatic series development at American Broadcasting Company Entertainment.
He was promoted to vice president of dramatic development in 1983. He held this position until 1986, when he formed The Avnet/Kerner Company, an independent production company, with Jon Avnet.
A year later, his first feature was produced, called Less Than Zero.
After another year, he had produced his first television movie, Side by Side. His acting debut was in Less Than Zero (uncredited) and then George of the Jungle 2 (credited), in which he played an advertising executive in the first and an airline passenger in the second. In 2001, he and Avnet started separate companies with Kerner forming The Kerner Entertainment Company.
His mother is Jeannette Kerner, a stage and screen actrees, who died in 2001, at the age of 85.
In 2007, Kerner was appointed Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the prestigious University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Politics
He subsequently transferred to Stanford University where he graduated in 1972 with distinction and honors receiving a Bachelor in Political Science and Communications. He then earned an Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 and also, in the same year, a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings, serving on the Law Review and founding COMM/ENT, the Journal of Communications and Entertainment Law.
