Michael Kaufman(VI)
- Producer
- Manager
- Writer
Michael Kaufman is a Spanish-U.S. tv, digital and documentary producer with more than 20 years experience in the U.S., China, Ireland, Spain, Argentina and Israel.
As a manager/producer for 5X are Spain-based Argentinian writer/showrunner Juan Carballo (Netflix's El Amor Después Del Amor), producer/showrunner Anne Clements (The Kill Room), writers the Lehrer Brothers (Tubi's The Freak Brothers), producer/writer/director Paul Kampf and 2Team Productions (Come Closer). Clements and Kampf are in production on Undercard, which stars Wanda Sykes and is shooting in Puerto Rico, as well as Harvest, starring Matthew McNulty and Angus Macfadyen and filming in Serbia.
Kaufman, who closed a first-look writing and producing deal for Carballo at Madrid's Secuoya Studios, joins 5X following his first-look deal with Moonrise Pictures on a variety of U.S. TV and film projects with writers and directors. He has worked in a number of territories and production credits include Queer Eye, Wife Swapand Bubble Guppies.
He was also an executive for several years, working as VP of Development for Vision Independent Productions, which had a first-look deal with Warner Bros International Television. Other roles included VP of Programming at Al Roker Entertainment and Director of Current Programming for ABC, where he oversaw shows such as Soap Talk.
He recently served as Executive Producer on a documentary (Secrets of Spain) commissioned by U.S. platform Discovery+/MAX he co-created on Spanish gastronomy and travel working with global Spanish brands. He is also a producer on Tessa Blake's (NCIS, Riverdale) and Liz Benjamins (Dead to Me) upcoming WW2 female spy series with MMC Studios Germany.
As an Executive Producer, Michael worked on MSNBC's news documentary series Al Roker and was an Executive Producer on Season 1 and Season 2 of MTV Networks series D.EA. in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Agency. He also served as Co-Executive Producer on The Food Network's documentary series My Life in Food, Heavyweights, and Take on the Takeaway, Tru TV's The Atocha Adventure, NBC's Quill Awards, and NBC's Diabetes: The Silent Killer. Michael was a producer on ABC's primetime hit Wife Swap, Showtime's political reality series American Candidate, Bravo's docu-series Showbiz Moms and Dads, CBS's Big Brother, and Rock The House for Vh1. He was part of the producing team for The Emmy-Award winning Queer Eye (Bravo/NBC Universal). His documentary film credits include The American Film Institute's "Audience Award" winning feature Gay Republicans, directed by Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice). He also produced the GLAAD award-winning Vh1's Totally Gay and Totally Gayer for MTV Networks that took a playful but investigative look at how gay culture became mainstream and vice versa.
Michael graduated from Columbia University with an M.F.A. in Film Producing. He received dual B.A. degrees in Film/Rhetoric and Italian Studies, cum laude, from U.C. Berkeley. He is based in Madrid.
As a manager/producer for 5X are Spain-based Argentinian writer/showrunner Juan Carballo (Netflix's El Amor Después Del Amor), producer/showrunner Anne Clements (The Kill Room), writers the Lehrer Brothers (Tubi's The Freak Brothers), producer/writer/director Paul Kampf and 2Team Productions (Come Closer). Clements and Kampf are in production on Undercard, which stars Wanda Sykes and is shooting in Puerto Rico, as well as Harvest, starring Matthew McNulty and Angus Macfadyen and filming in Serbia.
Kaufman, who closed a first-look writing and producing deal for Carballo at Madrid's Secuoya Studios, joins 5X following his first-look deal with Moonrise Pictures on a variety of U.S. TV and film projects with writers and directors. He has worked in a number of territories and production credits include Queer Eye, Wife Swapand Bubble Guppies.
He was also an executive for several years, working as VP of Development for Vision Independent Productions, which had a first-look deal with Warner Bros International Television. Other roles included VP of Programming at Al Roker Entertainment and Director of Current Programming for ABC, where he oversaw shows such as Soap Talk.
He recently served as Executive Producer on a documentary (Secrets of Spain) commissioned by U.S. platform Discovery+/MAX he co-created on Spanish gastronomy and travel working with global Spanish brands. He is also a producer on Tessa Blake's (NCIS, Riverdale) and Liz Benjamins (Dead to Me) upcoming WW2 female spy series with MMC Studios Germany.
As an Executive Producer, Michael worked on MSNBC's news documentary series Al Roker and was an Executive Producer on Season 1 and Season 2 of MTV Networks series D.EA. in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Agency. He also served as Co-Executive Producer on The Food Network's documentary series My Life in Food, Heavyweights, and Take on the Takeaway, Tru TV's The Atocha Adventure, NBC's Quill Awards, and NBC's Diabetes: The Silent Killer. Michael was a producer on ABC's primetime hit Wife Swap, Showtime's political reality series American Candidate, Bravo's docu-series Showbiz Moms and Dads, CBS's Big Brother, and Rock The House for Vh1. He was part of the producing team for The Emmy-Award winning Queer Eye (Bravo/NBC Universal). His documentary film credits include The American Film Institute's "Audience Award" winning feature Gay Republicans, directed by Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice). He also produced the GLAAD award-winning Vh1's Totally Gay and Totally Gayer for MTV Networks that took a playful but investigative look at how gay culture became mainstream and vice versa.
Michael graduated from Columbia University with an M.F.A. in Film Producing. He received dual B.A. degrees in Film/Rhetoric and Italian Studies, cum laude, from U.C. Berkeley. He is based in Madrid.
