Diana Kerew, an Emmy-winner television producer, died at her home in Glendale on Nov. 25 following a battle with cancer. She was 81.
Kerew executive produced more than 60 movies and miniseries for television, achieving success in the male-dominated entertainment industry and paving the way for other female producers as a mentor.
Kerew started off as a reader for David Susskind’s Talent Associates; she then became the first female producer at the company. Working for Talent Associates and later Time-Life Television as an executive producer, she worked on 16 films and miniseries. Some of these projects included the Emmy-nominated “Blind Ambition,” starring Martin Sheen, the Emmy-nominated and Peabody winner “The Wall,” and “The Bunker” which earned Anthony Hopkins an Emmy for acting.
Kerew briefly served as executive producer and vice president of television for Highgate Pictures before starting her own production company. Transitioning to focus on children’s programming, Kerew worked on several ABC “Afterschool Specials.” Two of these projects, “Starstruck” and “Cougar” took home Emmy Awards for Children’s Programming.
Kerew began working at Hearst Entertainment in 1992, where she produced more than a dozen television movies for major networks and cable outlets over the span of eight years, including “My Breast” starring Meredith Baxter and “15 and Pregnant” starring Kirsten Dunst.
In 2000, Kerew joined Alliance Atlantis Entertainment as a producer/executive producer before she was named vice president of movies and miniseries, overseeing a slate of more than 30 projects while still producing. Two of these titles include the Emmy-nominated series “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” and Jane Anderson’s “When Billie Beat Bobby,” which stars Holly Hunter as Billie Jean King.
Kerew joined Sony Television in 2003, where she produced “The Perfect Husband: The Lacy Petersen Story” for USA, “Surrender, Dorothy” starring Diane Keaton for CBS and “The Hunt for the BTK Killer,” also for CBS. Kerew’s last production was “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” for ABC. Beginning in 2008, Kerew served as a teacher and mentor to students at the University of Texas/Austin UTLA Center of Entertainment and Media Studies in Burbank, which was a second passion for her until her death.
Throughout her extensive career in entertainment, Kerew received multiple Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, Christopher Awards, Humanitas Awards, and an NAACP Image Award, among other nominations and accolades.
Kerew was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on Oct. 3, 1942. She attended University of California, Berkeley and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University, where she graduated magna cum laude. Early in her career, she worked at Joe Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival and Public Theatre and Paramount Pictures New York.
Kerew’s husband of 46 years, actor and stage manager Steven Shaw, predeceased her. Kerew is survived by two children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Kerew’s memorial service and celebration of life will be held on June 21; email kerewmemorial@gmail for more information. Donations may be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund and/or the Actors Fund.
