R.J. Cutler

Filmmaker & President, Actual Reality Pictures

R.J. Cutler is a producer and director of non-fiction films and television. He has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, a GLAAD Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two additional Emmys, a Producer's Guild Award, an NAACP Image Award, and an Independent Spirit Award, among others.

Most recently, Cutler directed and produced the documentary feature The September Issue, which tells the story of legendary Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her team as they produced the single largest issue of any magazine ever published. The September Issue premiered in competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Cinematography.

Cutler began his career producing The War Room, the Oscar-nominated documentary about Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the presidency, which was directed by documentary legends D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. The War Room was selected as the Outstanding Documentary of the Year by the National Board of Review and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Next, Cutler directed and produced the documentary A Perfect Candidate, which followed the infamous Virginia Senate campaign between Oliver North and Charles Robb. The Washington Post has called it, "One of a small handful of essential films about American politics," and the film was named one of the Best Documentaries of 1996 by The New York Times, and was nominated for both an Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy Award.

In 2000, Cutler created, directed and executive produced American High, the groundbreaking documentary series about high school students in suburban Chicago, which aired on both FOX and PBS and received the very first Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program. It was nominated for the same award the following year.

Cutler’s other film projects include producing the feature documentary Thin, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and continues to air on HBO and throughout the world. He also executive produced the acclaimed program 30 Days, featuring Morgan Spurlock, which just finished its third season on FX, as well as the international hit Flip That House, currently in its fourth season on TLC. In 2006, he created and executive produced the provocative six-hour FX series Black.White, the premiere of which became the most-watched non-fiction program in U.S. cable television history.

Cutler has also executive produced Freshman Diaries (Showtime), The Residents (TLC), American Candidate (Showtime), Military Diaries (VH-1), and Bound for Glory (ESPN), among others. He produced the documentary Making Dazed (AMC) and directed and produced the animated documentary Shays' Rebellion: America's First Civil War, which was part of the History Channel's Emmy-winning series Ten Days that Unexpectedly Changed America.

This past year, Cutler and his colleagues from The War Room reunited to make Return of the War Room, a surprisingly intimate and candid look back at the 1992 presidential election fifteen years later.