Hollywood Screenwriter and Pitt Professor Carl Kurlander To be Featured on Oprah Winfrey Show Jan. 27

January 24, 2003

PITTSBURGH––Hollywood screenwriter Carl Kurlander, who wrote

"St. Elmo's Fire" and who teaches screenwriting in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of English, will be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show at 4 p.m. Jan. 27 on WTAE-TV, channel 4.

With the threat of a Hollywood writers' strike looming several years ago, Kurlander returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh to fulfill a longtime fantasy to teach in Pitt's Film Studies Program.

Winfrey invited Kurlander to be a guest on her upcoming show about people who have changed career paths. Kurlander was featured in Po Bronson's new book, "What Should I Do With My Life," (Random House, 2002).

He began his career in 1982 as an intern to the president of Universal Studios, as part of a scholarship award he had won for "St. Elmo's Fire," a short story he wrote while attending Duke University. He turned the story into the screenplay that became the Columbia Pictures release of the same name. The 1985 film helped to launch the careers of a group of actors, including Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, who became known as the Brat Pack.

Since then, Kurlander has written screenplays under contract for Orion, Paramount, Universal, Columbia, and Disney. He also has been a writer or producer of more than 100 episodes for television series including "Saved by the Bell," "Hangtime," "The Louie Show," "USA High," and "Malibu, CA," as well as a writer of TV pilots and movies of the week for various networks.

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