Biography

Award-winning producer Jane Startz is the president of New York-based film and production company Jane Startz Productions, Inc. (JSP), which acquires, develops and produces high-quality intellectual properties across all media platforms.

Among Startz's credits are the major theatrical releases Ella Enchanted, Tuck Everlasting, The Indian In The Cupboard, The Mighty and The Baby-Sitters' Club.

Startz also developed and served as Executive Producer on the long-running international hit television series, Charles In Charge (126 episodes) and the multi Emmy Award-winning television series, The Magic School Bus, which became a major franchise and the longest-running science series in broadcast history. Startz also has produced over 50 award-winning television productions adapted from high-profile children's and young adult novels for HBO, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and NBC.

Before forming her own independent production company in 1997, Startz co-founded and served as the creative head and Executive Vice President of Scholastic Productions, the film and television division of Scholastic Inc. During her tenure, the company grew to be one of the world's major suppliers of family entertainment.

In April, 2015, A&E/Lifetime Movies premiered two films that Startz executive produced, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday (sequels to the VC Andrews novel-based Flowers in the Attic, which in 2014 was the most viewed movie on cable television since 2012). In March 2015, Startz commences production on another V.C. Andrews' novel, My Sweet Audrina, the phenomenally successful author's most popular stand alone title.

Other book-based properties Startz is producing include the NY-Times bestselling trilogy, The School for Good and Evil with Joe Roth for Universal Pictures, Hell or High Water in partnership with Zoe Saldana for Lionsgate TV and Televisa, The Aviator's Wife in partnership with and starring Jennifer Garner, Lord of the Nutcracker Men adapted by David Magee (Oscar-nominated writer of Finding Neverland and Life of Pi), Stolen in partnership with Ryan Kwanten, The Ultra Violets for Amazon Studios, Einstein: The World's Smallest Stallion, Lllama, Llama, with Genius Entertainment, Otis with 9 Story Media Group and The Extincts with Moonbot Studios.

Startz is the creator of the Disney Press book series Amigas Inc. and is partnered to produce a television series adaptation with Jennifer Lopez and her company, Nuyorican Productions.

Recently Startz sold the high concept book series, Gabby Duran and the Unsittables, to Disney/Hyperion. The books focus on the galaxy's best babysitter, a 12-year-old girl who lands a job working for an agency that caters to troublesome alien children. The live-action series based on the Gabby Duran books is now on The Disney Channel.

Startz and her company have partnered with Penguin Young Readers on a memoir about the celebrated 13-year-old phenom-driven heavy metal band, Unlocking the Truth, written by Pulitzer Prize wining author, Charisse Jones, as well as teaming up award-winning YA writer Elise Allen with Disney celebrity Bella Thorne to pen the popular TV star's first young adult book series, Autumn Falls, published in 2015 by Random House.

Presently, Startz serves as film, branding and media consultant for the international publishing house, Penguin Group, and the UK-based publisher The Chicken House.

Startz is also a founding partner and co-creator of Ridemakerz, a chain of entertaining and educational experience-based stores and a web-based destination where guests design and customize their own individualized cars. Build-a-Bear is Startz's financial partner in this venture. Ridemarkerz's vehicles can be found in over 1,500 Toys R Us stores, at Disney World and Disneyland flagship stores at Ridemakerz headquarter shops in Branson, Missouri and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and at FAO Schwarz.

Startz is a member of the Association of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Producer's Guild. She is the recipient of over 50 major awards in children's and family programming, including 2 Golden Globe Nominations, 6 Emmys, 10 Emmy Nominations, 2 Ace Awards, Broadcast Film Critics Association nomination for Best Family Film, Parents Choice Gold Awards, a Leo Award for Best Children's Program and an Action for Children's Television Award.

Startz and her company are presently producing a broad range of film and television projects, including the 2014 Emmy Award-winning adaptation of the bestselling book series by author Christopher Pike, Spooksville, which has aired 22 episodes in 2013-2014 to become one of the top-rated and most decorated series on the Hub Network, garnering the most Young Actor Awards nominations out of any other program in television, winning a Parents' Choice Award, an Emmy Award and the 2014 Leo Award for Best Original Children's Program and Best Performance in a Children's Program.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jane Startz