Kathryn Busby


Kathryn Ann Busby is an American film executive who has been senior vice president of development at Sony Pictures Television Networks, and in January 2020 was named as executive vice president of TriStar Television, a division of SPT. Sometimes credited as Kathy Busby, she is also a film producer. She was elected chair of the board of directors of BAFTA Los Angeles as of 2019.

Biography

Education and early work

Busby graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Visual and Environmental Studies. She worked in the record industry for several years as an executive at LaFace Records, Paisley Park Records, and MCA Records in London, UK.

Television career

Beginning a career in television, Busby served as director of comedy development at Universal Television from 1996 to 1999.
For six years, from 1999 to 2005, she was senior vice president and head of development at Carsey-Werner, where she developed such television series as Whoopi, The Tracy Morgan Show, Game Over, and Grounded for Life. She was subsequently supervising producer for The Aisha Tyler Show and senior vice president of production at New Line Cinema, where she was executive producer on the 2008 film Sex and the City and senior executive on Rush Hour 3.
Busby worked for four years with Turner Broadcasting from 2010, as vice president of comedy development and vice president of TNT and TBS Originals, working on such shows as Black Box, Wedding Band and Sullivan & Son. In 2014, she joined Sony Pictures Television Networks, where she served as senior vice president of development, initiating and overseeing the sourcing, development and early production of original series around the world.
As senior vice president of the boutique production unit Gemstone Studios, she spearheaded the development and production of drama series such as Absentia, until in January 2020 being named executive vice president of TriStar Television, a division of SPT.

Other activities

Also a filmmaker, Busby's work includes having directed, produced and co-written the short film Max and Josh, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and the 2004 comedy short My Purple Fur Coat. She co-authored with Neena Beber the original screenplay Her Gal Friday, which was optioned at ABC's Freeform channel.
Busby is on the Los Angeles board of directors for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, of which she was elected deputy chair in January 2018, and chair in December 2018.
Busby features in the 1999 book by Julian C. R. Okwu As I Am: Young African American Women in a Critical Age.