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Kirk Thatcher
Kirk Thatcher
	Thatcher at GalaxyCon Louisville in 2019
Born	Kirk R. Thatcher; February 14, 1962 (age 62)[citation needed]; Los Angeles, California
Occupation(s)	Writer, producer, director, production designer
Years active	1985–present

Kirk R. Thatcher (born February 14, 1962)^{[citation needed]} is an American writer, producer, television and film director, an Internet video director, and a production designer.^[1]^[2]

Personal life

Thatcher was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. While attending Harvard-Westlake Upper School he met Joe Johnston, a production designer for Star Wars. Johnston would later work with Thatcher on his first job in the industry, as a technical assistant on the ILM creature crew of Return of the Jedi.

Film

Thatcher began his career at eighteen, leaving UCLA Film School to work at George Lucas' special effects facility, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Thatcher was the production designer on David Fincher's first music videos and spent over a year creating the look for a number of Rick Springfield and The Motels videos.^[3] Subsequently, Thatcher was hired by Leonard Nimoy to associate produce Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. In the film, he also portrayed a punk rock fan whom Kirk and Spock encounter loudly playing the song "I Hate You" on a boombox on a public bus. Spock incapacitates the punk using the Vulcan nerve pinch, to the delight of the other passengers. Thatcher wrote and performed the song, recording it with sound designer Mark Mangini.^[4] Thatcher earns no additional money for the non-speaking role of "Punk" but does receive "like 8-cent residuals" for the song.^[5]

Thatcher's first directorial effort was in 2002, with It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie for NBC, which drew more than 11 million viewers.^[6] Thatcher has co-written several Muppet films including Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and directed three television movies, including A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), which premiered at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival.^[7]

In 2015, Thatcher directed Turkey Hollow, a Thanksgiving-themed TV movie for The Jim Henson Company which aired on Lifetime.^[8]^[9] Thatcher is also credited as one of the three writers of the film, alongside Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl. Kirk Thatcher makes a cameo appearance as "Punk Rock Guy" in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming, as a homage to his role as "Punk on Bus" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

In October 2021, Thatcher wrote and directed Muppets Haunted Mansion.^[10]

In 2024, Thatcher appeared in the Pixar film Inside Out 2.^[11]

Television

Thatcher was a supervising producer on the Emmy Award-winning ABC series Muppets Tonight.^[12]

Thatcher has also written episodes for the Cartoon Network series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and directed episodes of Nickelodeon's series LazyTown, PBS' Sid the Science Kid, and Comedy Central's Crank Yankers.

In 2014, Thatcher was seen on the SyFy Network's series Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge, where he appeared in each episode as a judge for the competition.

Thatcher returned to the Star Trek franchise in 2019, narrating in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode Ephraim and Dot. In 2022 he played an older and wiser version of the "Punk on the Bus" in the second season of Star Trek: Picard.^[13] That same year, he announced via his Instagram page that he would be writing for Mystery Science Theater 3000.^[14]

Internet and commercials

Thatcher has also directed The Muppets' "Bohemian Rhapsody", which won the "Viral Video" category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards.^[15] He has also directed 2015 Muppet Music videos "Jungle Boogie" and "Kodachrome".

References

^ "Overview for Kirk R Thatcher". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ "Team - Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge". Syfy.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ As he mentioned in a recent interview, he was once a competitive power lifter in high school and college, where known for his ability to lift cars. He has also learned to play the ukulele, which he can be seen holding in numerous interviews for Turkey Hollow. Plume, Kenneth (February 10, 2000). "Interview with Kirk Thatcher (Part 1 of 2)". IGN. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ "Mr. Know-It-All: Star Trek Teaches Us How Not to Confront Idiots With Loud Earbuds". Wired. 23 December 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ Hartlaub, Peter (2021-02-12). "The story behind the 'Star Trek IV' punk on bus: Kirk Thatcher Q&A". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-02-14.
^ "Kirk R. Thatcher". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ "Kirk R. Thatcher". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2015. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015.
^ "Turkey Hollow (2014) - Overview". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ "Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow". myLifetime.com. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ @KirkThatcher Aug 9, 2021
^ "Disney and Pixar's 'Inside Out 2' Reveals New Trailer and Voice Cast". thewaltdisneycompany.com. March 7, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
^ "Kirk R. Thatcher". Television Academy. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^ Pascale, Anthony (March 24, 2022). "Exclusive: How 'Star Trek: Picard' Brought Back [Spoiler] From 'The Voyage Home'". TrekMovie.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
^ "Kirk R. Thatcher". Mystery Science Theater 3000. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
^ "Webby Awards honour Ebert, Twitter, Times". CBC. May 4, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2015.