---
name: "Kurt Sutter"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/kurt-sutter"
fi1m_id: "kurt-sutter"
imdb_id: "nm1176676"
tmdb_id: 200043
wikidata_id: "Q955336"
roles: ["Writer","Producer","Director"]
born: "5 May 1960"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 69
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-24T10:03:21.496177+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Kurt Sutter

## Identity

Kurt Sutter

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/kurt-sutter
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** kurt-sutter
- **IMDb ID:** nm1176676
- **TMDB ID:** 200043
- **Wikidata ID:** Q955336
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Sutter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q955336, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1176676/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/200043

Writer and producer. Born 5 May 1960 in Rahway, New Jersey, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer, Director
- **Born:** 5 May 1960, Rahway, New Jersey, USA
- **Active:** 2002–present
- **Also known as:** Κερτ Σάτερ
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 acting, 1 directing, 2 writing
- **Frequently works with:** [Billy Gierhart](https://film.one/person/billy-gierhart.md), [Guy Ferland](https://film.one/person/guy-ferland.md), [Gwyneth Horder-Payton](https://film.one/person/gwyneth-horder-payton.md), [Paris Barclay](https://film.one/person/paris-barclay.md), [Stephen Kay](https://film.one/person/stephen-kay.md), [Terrence O'Hara](https://film.one/person/terrence-ohara.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 69, as writer, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 76 (2), 2010s 54 (1), 2020s 44 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Sutter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q955336, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1176676/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/200043

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*The Shield*](https://film.one/tv/the-shield.md) (84), [*Sons of Anarchy*](https://film.one/tv/sons-of-anarchy.md) (67)
- **Apple TV:** [*Southpaw*](https://film.one/film/southpaw.md) (54)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Kurt Sutter

> Kurt Sutter makes criminal families worth spending time with, but can keep us there too long. His blunt dialogue serves him well; the repeated betrayals of *Sons of Anarchy* expose his difficulty letting a story move on.

Jax Teller reads his dead father's manuscript in *Sons of Anarchy* (2008) and finds an account of what the motorcycle club was meant to be. His mother and stepfather watch him with alarm. Sutter makes that family disagreement the start of a crime story, with *Hamlet* supplying the shape. The first three seasons make good use of Jax's uncertainty about the club. The next four keep finding reasons to stage another betrayal.

Sutter was one of the writers on Shawn Ryan's *The Shield* (2002), alongside Glen Mazzara and Adam Fierro. The credit for its dialogue is shared, and should stay that way. Exchanges are frank and quick enough to give the actors something to play beyond a tough pose. Still, too many hard lines arrive together, until everyone seems required to sound abrasive. It is an early warning of how insistently Sutter's work can announce its toughness.

*Sons of Anarchy* gives that toughness a convincing home. Paul Maibaum, Edward J. Pei and Jonathan Freeman shoot Charming in hard, flat daylight. Inside the clubhouse, their low lighting leaves faces floating above the table. Paris Barclay keeps his episodes moving, while Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman give Sutter two formidable villains as Gemma and Clay. Charlie Hunnam's Jax cannot quite carry the series between them.

We grew tired of the closing montages in *Sons of Anarchy*, because another slow cover song over faces in cars and at the bar had begun to ask for sympathy the writing had not earned. Editors Sidney Wolinsky and Hunter M. Via make the device work at first, but its repetition becomes oppressive. Sutter's uncertainty about whether the club consists of heroes or criminals is useful while Jax shares it. Later, the insistence that these people are a family excuses behaviour the series ought to examine.

He went on to write the boxing drama *Southpaw* (2015), create the medieval series *The Bastard Executioner* (2015) and co-create the motorcycle-club spin-off *Mayans M.C.* (2018). We would like to see more trust in quieter exchanges and less reliance on the next betrayal. Start with *The Shield*, then approach the Sons knowing that three good seasons come with four more attached.

## Biography

Kurt Sutter is an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. Born in Rahway, New Jersey, he graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in mass media and earned an MFA from Northern Illinois University. He worked in theatre and acting in New York before moving to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting.

Sutter joined the writing staff of the FX series *The Shield* (2002) in its first season and rose to executive producer. He created the FX series *Sons of Anarchy* (2008–2014), on which he also wrote, directed and performed, and later created its spin-off *Mayans M.C.* (2018). He wrote the 2015 film *Southpaw*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nj.com, televisionacademy.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Performed in (1)

- *Chaos Walking* (2021), Fi1m 44, as Cillian Boyd — [page](https://film.one/film/chaos-walking.md)

### Directed (1)

- *Sons of Anarchy* (2008), Fi1m 67, Writer, Producer, Teleplay, Creator, Director, Story — [page](https://film.one/tv/sons-of-anarchy.md)

### Wrote (2) — the average rests on these

- *Southpaw* (2015), Fi1m 54, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/southpaw.md)
- *The Shield* (2002), Fi1m 84, Writer, Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-shield.md)

## Complete filmography (9)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Abandons* (2025), series, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Chaos Walking* (2021), as Cillian Boyd — Fi1m 44, [page](https://film.one/film/chaos-walking.md)
- *Mayans M.C.* (2018), series, Writer, Creator
- *The Bastard Executioner* (2015), series, as The Dark Mute · Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Southpaw* (2015), Writer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/southpaw.md)
- *Outlaw Empires* (2012), series, Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Sons of Anarchy* (2008), series, as Otto 'Big Otto' Delaney · Writer, Director, Producer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/tv/sons-of-anarchy.md)
- *The Shield* (2002), series, as Margos Dezerian (uncredited) · Writer, Producer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-shield.md)
- *This Beast*, Director, Screenplay

## Gallery

- ![Kurt Sutter](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-b2f66629d140.jpg) Kurt Sutter — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Kurt_Sutter_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kurt Sutter, Paris Barclay, Charlie Hunnam and Katey Sagal speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Sons of Anarchy", at the San Diego Conve](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-c16fa4256452.jpg) Kurt Sutter, Paris Barclay, Charlie Hunnam and Katey Sagal speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Sons of Anarchy", at the San Diego Conve — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Kurt_Sutter%2C_Paris_Barclay%2C_Charlie_Hunnam_%26_Katey_Sagal_%289366073268%29.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter%2C_Paris_Barclay%2C_Charlie_Hunnam_%26_Katey_Sagal_%289366073268%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kurt Sutter on the Sons of Anarchy panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-7a3b23b0097a.jpg) Kurt Sutter on the Sons of Anarchy panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Kurt_Sutter_%284842556471%29.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter_%284842556471%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kurt Sutter at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-c121a152c544.jpg) Kurt Sutter at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Kurt_Sutter_%285984663164%29.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter_%285984663164%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kurt Sutter](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-ade66ee4d26e.jpg) Kurt Sutter — Image via TMDB
- ![Kurt Sutter at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-85acee7a0c3c.jpg) Kurt Sutter at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Kurt_Sutter_%285984665508%29.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter_%285984665508%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kurt Sutter speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Sons of Anarchy", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please a](https://film.one/media/person/100631/gallery-b44be5adb1d3.jpg) Kurt Sutter speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Sons of Anarchy", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please a — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Kurt_Sutter_%289363257389%29.jpg/1280px-Kurt_Sutter_%289363257389%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/kurt-sutter