Paulist Father Ellwood (Bud) Kieser was the founder of Paulist Productions and the highly acclaimed television series Insight. Beginning in 1960 he worked in the entertainment community in Hollywood as a priest-producer, using television as a vehicle of spiritual enrichment.

Born in Philadelphia in 1929 and graduating from that city’s La Salle University in 1950, he joined the Paulist Fathers the same year. The Paulists are an order of Catholic priests dedicated to ministry to those outside their church through the media.

In 1973, Kieser received a Ph.D. in the theology of communication from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His dissertation was titled “Cinema as Religious Experience.”

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1956 and assigned to the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in West Los Angeles. He also served as Chaplain of the UCLA Medical Center for the next two years.

Father Ellwood E. Kieser, C.S.P.
Mar. 27, 1929
to Sept. 16, 2000

In 1958, Father Kieser established an institute of adult education in theology intended for persons of all religions. He directed the institute until 1964.

In 1960, Kieser created Insight a television series designed to exploit the humanizing potential of television and use it as a vehicle of spiritual education.

Father Kieser was the Executive Producer of Insight during its 23-year run. Featuring many of America's finest actors, directors, and writers, and airing on up to 200 stations each week, Insight won six Emmy Awards and soon became the experimental theater of Hollywood television.

In 1974, Father Kieser created The Humanitas Prize to encourage the communication of human values through entertainment writing. Endowed by the entertainment industry, it now gives cash awards each year to the writers of television programs and feature films that do the most to enrich their audiences.

In 1978, Father Kieser launched the Capital Cities Family Specials on the moral dilemmas of teenagers.