Faculty
Peter Werner began his professional life as a teacher and documentary filmmaker; he has Master’s degrees in both fields. After a year as a V.I.S.T.A. Volunteer in downtown Detroit, he co-founded a Quaker high school in Deerfield, MA. While teaching in Vermont, he met Frances Flaherty, widow of the great “father of documentaries” Robert. Frances became both his friend and mentor and allowed Peter to make a documentary portrait of her that aired on PBS. It was the first project produced by his younger brother, Tom, who went on to create “Roseanne” and many others under his company Carsey-Werner. Tom is currently co-owner of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club.
Peter’s American Film Institute student film, which he wrote and directed based on the short story “In the Region of Ice” by Joyce Carol Oates, was shown at the New York Film Festival and earned Peter an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. Since then he has directed documentaries, pilots, including Nash Bridges, TV movies and a plethora of episodic television series. His credits include Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, A Different World, The Wonder Years, Moonlighting, and Graham Yost’s series Boomtown and Justified. In the span of his career, Werner has been nominated for multiple Emmy and D.G.A. Awards. He won an ACE cable Award for his HBO film, The Image, starring Albert Finney. He is married with three children (Lillie, Katharine and James) and has been a board member of his son’s schools as well as the American Film Institute. He has taught and lectured extensively and has practiced Buddhism for 30 years.