By any measure, Burt Kearns has lived several creative lives — journalist, tabloid-era trailblazer, documentary provocateur, biographer, filmmaker, and cultural historian. It’s a résumé so expansive that Vanity Fair once dubbed him “a show business and pop culture savant,” a label that fits a man who has spent nearly five decades chasing stories wherever they dared to lead.
A Closer Look
“I’ve basically made my living writing for almost 50 years now,” Burt Kearns says. “And I prefer to write nonfiction, probably because I started out very early as a journalist.”
That journalistic DNA has never left him. Before Hollywood came calling, Kearns cut his teeth in New York City as a print and television journalist — serving as a reporter, editor, and Emmy-winning newswriter for local and network news programs. His bylines appeared in outlets such as Spin magazine, and he later became a defining force during the explosive rise of tabloid television, helping shape shows like A Current Affair and Hard Copy.
“For the past 30 years or so, I’ve been a writer and producer of nonfiction television and films,” he notes. “You can see from my resume — it’s a varied collection.”
Varied, indeed. His nonfiction television career reads like a time capsule of modern pop-culture obsession. His credits include projects for Netflix, Reelz, HBO, Showtime, Bravo, WE tv, and ALLBLK, with programs ranging from Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura and Joe Rogan Questions Everything to Guinness World Records Unleashed, True Tori, and L.A. Hair.
He also served as creator and executive producer of the sports docuseries Breaking the Ice, which premiered in 2023, and appeared onscreen in the Netflix documentary Kardashian: The Man Who Saved O.J. Simpson — a project he also wrote, produced, and executive produced for Reelz.
Among his numerous documentary specials are TIME Presents Celebrities on Trial, Entertainment Weekly Presents: ’80s TV Stars — Where Are They Now?, and El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle in the Jungle, all marked by Kearns’ signature blend of investigative curiosity and narrative urgency.
His Expansive Career on the Big Screen
Burt Kearns’ film work extends just as widely. He has produced and directed award-winning nonfiction films, including The Seventh Python, Basketball Man, The Chris Montez Story, and High There, while also serving as co-writer and producer — alongside two-time Academy Award® winner Albert S. Ruddy — on the 20th Century Fox feature Cloud 9, starring Burt Reynolds.
Yet for all his screen success, Kearns’ recent creative renaissance has arrived through books.
His first, the provocative memoir Tabloid Baby, published in 1999, pulled back the curtain on the wild west of tabloid television. The book became infamous in its own right, earning reactions that ranged from TV Guide’s “hilariously scandalous” to Maury Povich’s declaration: “The Bible.”
But then — silence. “I didn’t write another book for another 20 years,” Kearns admits. “That book was thanks to my co-author, Jeff Abraham.”
The Result
The result was The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, published in 2019 by Chicago Review Press — a macabre yet deeply researched work that earned acclaim from NPR, the Daily Mail, and the Jerusalem Post.
The momentum continued during the pandemic lockdown, when Kearns wrote Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy, the first full biography of the notoriously volatile screen legend.
“I wrote it during lockdown and around the same time connected with literary agent Lee Sobel,” Burt Kearns recalls. “With his help and encouragement, I was all of a sudden a Hollywood biographer.”
That transformation reached full force with SHEMP! The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard: The Face of Film Comedy, published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books in October 2024. The book caused immediate ripples in classic-comedy circles, with film historian Leonard Maltin declaring that it “overturns much of the accepted history of the Three Stooges’ lives and careers.”
He Makes No Apologies
Kearns makes no apologies. “I enjoy the research — going down the rabbit holes, following leads, and correcting historical mistakes that are repeated again and again,” he says. “There are few things more satisfying than sorting out and publishing the real story.”
Sometimes, that pursuit of truth ruffles feathers. “I did that with Shemp! and upset a lot of Three Stooges fans,” he admits with a grin. “They thought I was too hard on Moe Howard, who was responsible for many of the inaccuracies.”
For Kearns, accuracy isn’t optional; it’s the point. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve mostly been able to choose the subjects of my documentaries and book projects,” he says. “That can also be a drawback. As my son once told me: ‘Dad, you’ve got to write about someone people have heard of!’ Thankfully, my agent has helped me with that.”
And Now…
Today, Burt Kearns shows no signs of slowing down. His recent screenwork includes serving as producer, co-writer, and editor of Pusherman: Frank Lucas & the True Story of “American Gangster,” released in 2025 and now streaming on Tubi. He is also in preproduction on Johnny in Wonderland, while simultaneously researching two new books — including a major celebrity biography slated for publication in 2028.
“This week I signed the deal,” he says. “I can’t reveal who it’s about yet — but expect it in 2028.”
In January 2026, Kearns also launched a new chapter by sharing his personal stories and professional “greatest hits” on Substack, offering readers direct access to the voice behind the investigations.
And for aspiring writers watching his career unfold, Kearns offers advice as blunt — and honest — as his prose.
“When it comes to writing,” he says, “the key is simple: ‘Write it. Finish it.’ Anyone can write fifty pages. It’s the next hundred and fifty that matter.”
Nearly fifty years into his career, Burt Kearns is still doing exactly that — writing, finishing, digging deeper, and refusing to let Hollywood myth replace historical truth.
Because for him, the story doesn’t matter unless it’s the real one.
[To order any number of the distinguished books by Burt Kearns, including Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, please click here or here.]
I worked for him! Great boss, amazing producer.