Brian Kite, former producing artistic director of the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, is the new chair of the Department of Theater, Teri Schwartz, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, announced recently. Kite, whose appointment became effective July 1, has taught at the school for the past 10 years.

“I am delighted to welcome Brian Kite as professor and new chair of UCLA TFT’s Department of Theater,” Schwartz said. “Brian brings an outstanding history of great teaching, mentoring, distinguished creative work, and robust artistic direction and management, especially with the resounding successes of the multi-award-winning La Mirada Theatre Company. We are confident that Brian will be a great leader for our Department of Theater. He will work tirelessly and with great imagination to help bring this jewel in the crown for UCLA TFT to new levels of excellence for now and the future.”

As producing artistic director of the La Mirada theater from 2008-2015, he directed numerous acclaimed productions, including “Billy Elliot,” “Les Misérables,” “Miss Saigon,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Proof.” He has directed live theater across the United States and abroad, including the national tours of “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Graduate” for L.A. Theatre Works. He staged the first production of "Miss Saigon" to ever play in China and directed “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” which toured throughout mainland China. It was the first U.S. production of a play at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts.

For more than seven years, Kite was the director of theater programs at New York’s French Woods Festival. Kite is the chair the Los Angeles Stage Alliance’s board of governors and the artistic director of the award-winning Buffalo Nights Theatre Company in Los Angeles. He is the recipient of the 2013 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of “Spring Awakening.” Kite received his B.A. and his M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

For more information, visit the school’s website.