Thomas Rigler is a 2021 and 2019 two-time Emmy-Award-winning director, writer, executive producer and nonfiction showrunner operating on the razor’s edge of art, social impact, and commerce.Currently under contract for upcoming projects with ITV Studios, Spiegel TV and ARTE, Thomas previously served as the showrunner and director on California Coast, the 2021 Emmy- winning environmental and social justice series he created for PBS; the 2019 Emmy-winning PBS series Lost LA; and the 2015 Emmy-nominated PBS series City Walk, which he also created.In his formative years Thomas spent 6 exciting years in-house at E! and Style Networks, a division of Comcast NBC Universal, starting out as writer-producer for several of the broadcast franchises, eventually overseeing his own production and development unit as Executive Producer at the beginning of the online and streaming era. Successful international platform launches for Comcast in the UK, Europe and Australia followed.After some very productive years as a digital consultant for startups and corporate clients, Thomas launched his own outfit with Rigler Creative Handcrafted Digital, with a focus on broadcast series development and production for PBS, often in close collaboration with corporate brands and government agencies, among them: Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, the Office of the US Surgeon General, the CDC, and the State of California.With production offices in Los Angeles and Vienna, Austria, Thomas chases storylines and topics in pursuit of the mysteries of the human experience inside our cities and protected landscapes, as well as the magic of the creative process in film, theater, music, art, design, public health and science.He produced and directed close to 100 shows and programs for such broadcasters as PBS, E!, Style, Food Network, Fine Living, CNET, NBC, Arte, ZDF, and 3Sat, as well as streamers Amazon Prime and Hulu. As an executive he oversaw production teams generating around one thousand programs across various platforms.Thomas is a member of the Producers Guild of America; the Television Academy, the Academy’s Directors Peer Group; the board of directors of the Austrian Directors Association; a past board member / VP of the International Documentary Association and a two-time prototype participant with the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab.