Kirk R. Thatcher is an American director, writer, actor, producer, production designer, creature maker, and character designer for film, television and Internet. He was born on February 14, 1962 in Los Angeles, California.
Thatcher began his career at eighteen, leaving UCLA Film School to work at George Lucas's special effects facility, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), designing, creating and puppeteering creatures for blockbusters such as, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Poltergeist (1982), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), and Gremlins (1984).
Thatcher was the production designer on David Fincher's first music videos and spent over a year creating the look for a number of Rick Springfield and The Motels videos. Subsequently, he was hired by Leonard Nimoy to associate produce Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He also portrayed "Punk on the Bus", a discourteous commuter loudly playing the song I Hate You on a boombox in the film. Thatcher also wrote and performed the song.
His first directorial effort was in 2002, with It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie for NBC, which drew more than 11 million viewers. Thatcher has co-written several Muppet films including Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and directed three television movies, including A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), which premiered at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2015, Thatcher directed Turkey Hollow, a Thanksgiving-themed TV movie for The Jim Henson Company which aired on Lifetime. He is also credited as one of the three writers of the film, alongside Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl. Kirk Thatcher makes a cameo appearance as "Punk Rock Guy" in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming, as a homage to his role as "Punk on Bus" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
In October 2021, Thatcher wrote and directed Muppets Haunted Mansion.
Kirk Thatcher was a supervising producer on the Emmy Award-winning ABC series Muppets Tonight.
He has also written episodes for the Cartoon Network series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and directed episodes of Nickelodeon's series LazyTown, PBS's Sid the Science Kid, and Comedy Central's Crank Yankers.
In 2014, Thatcher was seen on Syfy's series Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge, where he appeared in each episode as a judge for the competition.
He returned to the Star Trek franchise in 2022, reprising his "Punk on the Bus" role in the second season of Star Trek: Picard, this time playing an older and wiser version of the character from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That same year, he announced via his Instagram page that he'd be writing for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Kirk Thatcher has also directed The Muppets' Bohemian Rhapsody, which won the "Viral Video" category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards. He has also directed 2015 Muppet Music videos Jungle Boogie and Kodachrome.
