The John H. Mitchell Visiting Professorship in Media Entertainment brings a highly experienced media industry professional or scholar whose body of work has been committed to ethics in the workplace and to developing, promoting, or researching social change initiatives.
The professorship follows a three-year rotation pattern which reflects the main areas of the curriculum: Screenwriting, Production, and Studies. FTVM faculty will invite a renowned practitioner or scholar to teach (or co-teach) one BA course each academic year in his or her area of expertise during the fall term.
Fall 2025- John Cameron Mitchell: Writer, Director, Performer
John Cameron Mitchell has been directing, writing and performing for stage, screen, television, and podcast for over 40 years. He is perhaps best known for writing, directing, and starring in the award-winning theatrical production and film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001). His other feature film directorial credits include the improv-based Shortbus (2006), the 2013 film Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017). He has also directed episodes of GLOW and Nurse Jackie, among other television productions. With extensive acting experience on Broadway, he has appeared on numerous series including Mozart in the Jungle, Shrill, The Good Fight, and Yellowjackets. In 2022, he portrayed Joe Exotic on the Peacock miniseries Joe vs. Carole. He has also written and directed two fictional podcast series (which he calls “audio cinema”): the autobiographical musical Anthem: Homunculus (2019), starring himself, Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti Lupone, Denis O’Hare, and Laurie Anderson; and Cancellation Island starring Holly Hunter, which will be released in 2025.
Fall 2024- Kemp Powers: Screenwriter, Director, Producer
Kemp Powers, the John H. Mitchell Visiting Professor in Screenwriting, is the co-writer and co-director of Soul, the writer and producer of One Night in Miami, and the co-director of Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. Kemp was a Knight Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2002-2003 when he took his first screenwriting class in our Screenwriting Program with film critic and screenwriter, Terry Lawson.
