Miguel Valenti is an active independent motion picture and television producer, an entertainment attorney and an advisor on media and entertainment-related issues. He is also the Founding Director of the West Coast campus of highly acclaimed Quinnipiac University, home of the Quinnipiac Poll. He was formerly the Lincoln Professor of Ethics and the Arts at Arizona State University, and the creator of ASU’s film school.
Valenti produced THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA, a loving send-up of the 1960’s Roger Corman low-budget sci-fi motion pictures, for a micro-budget in 2000. This motion picture went on to be released theatrically by Tri-Star Pictures/Sony Entertainment nationwide in 2001 and worldwide in 2003. He also produced VIG (aka THE MONEY KINGS) written by award-winning screenwriter/poet/playwright Paul Hapenny, starring Peter Falk, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Tyne Daly and Colm Meaney. Other producing credits include ABRACADABRA, and MASTER OF THE MANOR, a short that Valenti also co-wrote with 2004 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction Doug Wright (QUILLS), and co-directed, and which earned a Cine Golden Eagle as well as top awards at major film festivals and was distributed internationally. Finally, he has produced over 50 spots, commercials, promos and films for Arizona State University, its administration, faculty and students, local organizations, charities and so on.
Valenti’s book, More Than a Movie: Ethics In Entertainment (Westview Press; October 2000) urges members of the creative community to examine the ethical choices they make on a daily basis, and to consider how such choices affect their worldwide audience. The book features contributing articles from filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, interviews with Producer David Brown (JAWS), producer Christine Vachon (BOYS DON’T CRY) and other notable voices from motion picture production and scholarship. Valenti has been a guest on CNN and a number of regional and national radio broadcasts, and lectures on the topic of ethics in entertainment nationally.