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Biography

Ken Kurtis

Overview

  • Born
    May 20 · Brooklyn, New York, USA
  • Height
    5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)

Biography

  • Ken's first acting endeavor was in 6th grade when he was cast as President of the Moon for a production at Ocean View Elementary School in Whittier. He went on to win numerous talent contests and when he entered high school got involved in the drama club. That led him to choose Northwestern University (Evanton, Illinois) for college where he got involved in the Radio/TV/Film Department, specifically spending 4 years hosting various programs on WNUR-FM. From there, it was off to a career as a Top 40 afternoon-drive disc jockey (always #1-rated) in various markets. When Ken was in Richmond, Virginia, he segued into television when he was tapped as a last-minute replacement to host the Pledge Drive on the local PBS station. That got him hooked on doing TV and he continued in the Richmond market for a few years. Ken came to Los Angeles in 1981 and immediately starting working for KCET (LA's PBS station) hosting . . . what else?? . . . the Pledge Drives and for 20 years was their mainstay host. Along the way he became a NAUI scuba instructor and currently mixes hosting/acting with diving and bad golf.
    - IMDb mini biography by: Ken Kurtis

Self-verified on IMDbPro

  • Gender / Gender identity
    Male
  • Pronouns
    he/him

Trivia

  • His first radio appearance (at the age of 11) was on a radio station in Dover, Delaware, whose call letters were WKEN.
  • A volunteer diver at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.
  • Made a dive in the Alvin submersible to a depth of 3500-feet in 1996.
  • He once attempted - for a radio station promotion in Tulsa, Oklahoma - to break the Guinness World Record for continuous hopscotching.

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