Steven R. Kutcher (born January 9, 1944) is an American entomologist who has worked as a "wrangler" of insects and other arthropods in the entertainment industry.[1][2] He has gained media attention as "The Bug Man of Hollywood."[3][4]
In recent years, Kutcher has attracted additional notice[5] by using insects as "living brushes" to create "Bug Art," while continuing his work as a naturalist and educator.
Background, education, and training
Born in Manhattan, New York, a young Steven R. Kutcher collected fireflies in the Catskill Mountains. Kutcher continued to collect insects after his family moved to a suburb of Los Angeles, California, this time in the Santa Monica Mountains. At 19, Kutcher traveled 3000 miles around Mexico, exploring desert to tropical ecosystems.
Kutcher received a bachelors degree in entomology from the University of California, Davis, in 1968; and a Master of Science degree in biology from the California State University, Long Beach, in 1975. His formal studies focused on insect behavior — in particular the aggregating behavior of the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciitis[6] — observed via time-lapse cinematography under experimental conditions.
In 1970, Kutcher began his work in the entertainment industry as "Larry J. Felix" in The Stein and Illes Radio Show, a comedy show on KUSC, in Southern California; James R. Stein and Robert Illes would both become Emmy Award–winning TV writers and producers. Kutcher received comedic training from Bill Cosby and once had Robin Williams as an audience.[2]
"The Bug Man of Hollywood"
Since 1977, Kutcher has manipulated the instinctive behaviors of arthropods, and the instinctive reactions of audiences, mostly in the horror, thriller, fantasy, and comedy genres. He has worked with insects on over 100 feature films, including Spider-Man (2002), Jurassic Park, and Arachnophobia. Kutcher has also worked on numerous popular television shows—including CSI: NY, MacGyver, and The X-Files – as well as TV commercials and online advertising for Fortune 500 corporations.
As "The Bug Man of Hollywood," Kutcher has himself been the subject of numerous interviews. He has appeared on TV talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. In 1992, Kutcher appeared as a guest on the Emmy-nominated "Spider Episode"[7] of the TV talk show parody The Larry Sanders Show, starring Garry Shandling. In 1998, Kutcher appeared on the British TV children's show The Scoop, which won a BAFTA award.[8]
Manipulating insect behavior
Applying his expertise on arthropod behaviors, Kutcher manipulates instinctive responses such as positive or negative sensitivity to light, air pressure, or gravity to make bugs perform scripted tricks on cue,[2] such as:
A live wasp flies harmlessly into the mouth of actor Roddy McDowell.
A cockroach runs across the floor and then, "hitting its mark", flips over on its back.
A spider crawls across a room and then into a slipper.
A cockroach crawls out of a shoe, walks up a bag of snack food and onto a surfing magazine, and then stops upon a picture of a surfboard.
A praying mantis, a scorpion, and beetles power-up a cell phone as part of a "Bug Circus" in online ad[9] (a la a traditional flea circus).
Hundreds of bees or thousands of locusts swarm on camera as called for in the script.
"Bug Art"
In the 1980s, for a Steven Spielberg television project, Steven Kutcher made a fly walk through ink and leave footprints as directed.[10]
Since 2000, Steven Kutcher has been creating "Bug Art," using various arthropods as "living brushes" to apply gouache and other nontoxic paints on watercolor paper.[11]
"I use water-based, nontoxic paints that easily wash off", he says. "I have to take good care of them. After all, they are artists!"[5]
The abstract to surrealistic compositions are shaped by Kutcher's methods of manipulating insect movements, and are often influenced by the works of Impressionist and other master painters.[12]
Contributions as scientist, naturalist, and educator
Steven Kutcher has given talks and live-insect demonstrations at hundreds of film festivals, seminars, workshops, museums, libraries, and schools (pre-K through post-graduate level).[2]
Kutcher has been instrumental in creating annual insect fairs, as at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and Los Angeles County Arboretum, which have been attended by more than 100,000 children and adults. Kutcher also served as a consultant in the development of the interactive insect exhibits at the Kidspace Children's Museum,[13] in Pasadena, California.
For over 30 years, Kutcher has taught entomology, zoology, and biology courses at West Lost Angeles College, Culver City, but has also taught for four other community colleges.[2]
Partial Filmography
Theatrical films
In addition to serving as "bug wrangler" or entomology consultant for numerous student and independent films, Kutcher has worked on many feature films from major studios and production companies:[1][2]
