Kelly McPherson
Biography
Kelly McPherson is an American producer and writer who grew up in suburban Dallas and studied film and television at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and began his career working as a producer and writer, including work with Oscar-winning producer Arnold Shapiro.
McPherson developed extensive experience in documentary and reality television, working on productions such as The History of Sex, Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic, and Founding Brothers. His writing on Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic earned him a Writers Guild of America Award nomination in 1998, while his adaptation of Joseph Ellis's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Founding Brothers brought another WGA nomination in 2002.
In 2006, he became executive producer and showrunner of the Food Network series Ace of Cakes, serving in the role for six seasons. He later collaborated with Randall Wallace on Fight or Die, a Discovery documentary special about the first major battle of the Vietnam War.
In 2008, McPherson co-founded Karga Seven Pictures with Emre Şahin and Sarah Wetherbee. The company has produced hundreds of hours of television programming across documentary, unscripted, scripted, and historical genres.
His later credits include Rise of Empires: Ottoman (2020–2022), Midnight at the Pera Palace (2022–2024), and Testament: The Story of Moses (2024). He served as a writer and executive producer on Rise of Empires: Ottoman and was one of the creators and producers of Midnight at the Pera Palace.
