Jack Kenny is an American actor, television director, writer/producer, and the creator of the controversial NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 television show The Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel (TV series)

The Book of Daniel is a television series broadcast on NBC. The network promoted it as a serious drama about Christians and the Christian faith, but it was controversial with some Christians. The show had been proposed for NBC's 2005 fall line-up, but was rescheduled as a 2006 midseason replacement...

in 2006. Kenny also co-created the highly acclaimed but somewhat controversial comedy Titus

Titus (TV series)

Titus is an American dark comedy sitcom that debuted on Fox in 2000. The series was created by its star, Christopher Titus, Jack Kenny, and Brian Hargrove...

(broadcast by Fox Network from 2000 and 2002) with his writing partner Brian Hargrove

Brian Hargrove

David Brian Hargrove is an American television writer and producer.He earned his BFA degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and studied acting at the Juilliard School...

 and comedian Christopher Titus

Christopher Titus

Christopher Todd Titus is an American comedian and actor. He grew up in Newark, California. Titus came to national attention with the eponymous FOX show Titus, of which he was the star, executive producer and co-creator...

. They produced 54 episodes of the Fox comedy. Kenny also directed nine of those episodes. Warehouse 13 is produced for Syfy by Universal Cable Productions. Jack Kenny (The Book of Daniel) is executive producer and showrunner.
Kenny is a graduate of the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 Theatre Center and a member of John Houseman

John Houseman

John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...

's The Acting Company

The Acting Company

The Acting Company is a theatre company associated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1972 by John Houseman, then a professor of acting at the Juilliard School...

. His New York acting debut was in The Normal Heart

The Normal Heart

The Normal Heart is a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer. It focuses on the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the gay Jewish-American founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group...

 at Joseph Papp

Joseph Papp

Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York . "The Public," as it is known, has many small theatres within it...

's Public Theater

Public Theater

The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...

, and his Broadway debut was as "Motel, the tailor" in the 25th anniversary production of Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...

.

In 2008, he signed on as show runner and Executive Producer of the original Syfy series Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13 is an American fantasy television series that premiered on July 7, 2009 on the Syfy network.Executive-produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins, the dramatic comedy from Universal Media Studios has been described as borrowing much from 1980s television series Friday the 13th: The...

, helping to make it the most successful series in Syfy's history.

The Book of Daniel was cancelled after four episodes had aired. Though NBC gave no official explanation, the program had been the victim of a threatened advertiser boycott by the American Family Association

American Family Association

The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...

 and other groups for its content before a single episode had aired. In a 2006 article in The Advocate

The Advocate

The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...

, Kenny, who is gay, took issue with the LGBT community for not acting when he and the show were attacked.

Kenny was born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, the son of Sally and John Joseph Kenny, Jr., a business manager for IBM. His sister, Adele Kenny Sweetwood, is a VP at SAS Institute

SAS Institute

SAS Institute Inc. , headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig...

 in North Carolina.

Kenny has been with his longtime partner, Michael Goodell, son of the late US Senator Charles Goodell

Charles Goodell

Charles Ellsworth Goodell was a U.S. Representative and a Senator from New York, notable for coming into both offices under special circumstances following the deaths of his predecessors.-Early life and education:...

 of New York, and brother of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

Roger Goodell

Roger S. Goodell is the Commissioner of the National Football League , having been chosen to succeed the retiring Paul Tagliabue on August 8, 2006. He was chosen over four finalists for the position, winning a close vote on the fifth ballot before being unanimously approved by acclamation of the...

since August 1982. The couple were legally married in California in July 2008.

External links