After graduating from college at Harvard and law school at Berkeley, Banks returned to his home state of Texas to work as a civil rights attorney. Several years later, hoping to add to his already staggering student loan debt, Banks returned to school to attend Stanford’s nonfiction filmmaking program. While there, he directed several music videos that appeared on MTV and the award-winning documentary Watch Me Jumpstart, about the legendary, down-in-the-basement rock band Guided By Voices.

In 1997, Banks joined the senior staff of MTV’s News and Documentaries Department, where he developed and supervised the hit documentary series True Life. In addition to supervising the first several seasons, Banks also produced and directed many of the most popular and highest-rated True Life episodes in the history of the series, including Pro Wrestler, Porn Star, and Summer Share on the Jersey Shore. Banks also created and produced the pioneering two-hour special First Year, and supervised and produced many of MTV’s pro-social documentaries, including Candidate (about two young candidates for Congress) and Aftermath of Terror (about the role one New Jersey city played in the 9/11 attack).

Banks is often referred to as the “good cop” at Left/Right, famous for his ability to reach consensus and to calm the nerves of jittery staffers and clients. This cool demeanor also allows him to play hilarious pranks on unsuspecting staff members, who can never seem to tell when he’s just messing with them.

Ken graduated from film school at NYU and began his career as a cinematographer, focusing primarily on documentaries. Along the way, he was afforded the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from many of the best and the brightest storytellers in nonfiction.

When the reality television craze took hold, Ken parlayed his experience as a cameraman into new opportunities as a producer and director on shows of all shapes and sizes for networks such as A&E and Discovery. At the same time, he launched a production company that created documentaries, commercials, and promotional films. This ability to alternate between gritty documentary projects and glossier commercial work, and to merge such disparate job descriptions and styles, has been invaluable in his work as an executive producer.

But fate—and a mafia princess—would soon bring Ken together with his partner Banks Tarver. They first joined forces as showrunners on the hit series Growing Up Gotti for A&E. The premiere episode received one of the highest ratings in the network’s history, and was chosen as one of the 10 best shows of the year by The New York Times—the only unscripted series to make the list. Following this successful collaboration, Ken and Banks formalized their partnership by creating Left/Right. Remarkably, that all happened nearly 15 years (and 20 pounds) ago.

Ken enjoys identifying and hiring smart people and taking credit for their great work. He also likes to write in the third person, on the off chance that it will disguise the fact that he is writing this very blurb himself.

Kevin Vargas is the Chief Operating Officer of Left/Right, and as such he oversees all operations, production, and business affairs at the company. He has been instrumental in creating and refining the company’s operations and financial architecture, as well as being responsible for its ongoing finance/accounting and business affairs. Kevin has been with Left/Right since its inception, and has had an active hand in producing every one of its shows. His sound judgment and business acumen have been essential to the company’s success.

During his career, Kevin has produced well over 1,000 episodes of television across all genres, including award winning nonfiction series (This American Life, The Circus, Frontline), scripted series (Odd Mom Out, Misfits & Monsters), documentary/reality series, daily “strip” shows, game shows, food/travel series, commercials, and documentary films.

Michael Mezaros has been an integral part of the Left/Right team since our first series, overseeing all aspects of post production. Mike has played a key role in the design and management of our extensive post-production facilities, and in building the workflows and teams that keep those facilities humming. From the edit bay to color correction to audio mix, Mike and his department help elevate our programming both technically and creatively.

Mike is also a valued writer and producer at the company, having served on feature documentaries about figures as varied as Einstein, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Jesus. Through his work on Brad Meltzer's Lost History and America's 9/11 Flag: Rise from the Ashes, Mike was also a vital member of the team that helped recover the long-lost Ground Zero Flag—raised by firefighters on 9/11, then missing for years—and helped return it to New York City while documenting the historic moment. That experience led to other films exploring the events and aftermath of 9/11, including 15 Septembers Later, 9/11: Four Flights, and Rise & Fall: The World Trade Center.

A lifelong science fiction fan, physical restraints would have been necessary to keep Mike from becoming involved with one of his favorite projects: James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, for AMC. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.

Pete began his career at Court TV, where he developed true crime series and documentaries, and played an integral role during the rebrand of the network to truTV and the launch of its first slate of series. He then spent four years as Head of Development for IMG Productions, the production division of the global sports, fashion, and media company IMG (now Endeavor). At IMG Productions, Pete spearheaded the creation of the entertainment department and developed and produced formats, reality projects, sports documentaries, and live events for a wide range of networks. He also served as a consultant on TV and digital projects across the other IMG divisions, including Fashion, Models, Clients & Broadcasting, and Action Sports.

Since joining Left/Right in 2014, Pete and his team have created, developed, and sold projects across a wide range of genres, including The Zoo and The Aquarium for Animal Planet, Biography: The Trump Dynasty for A&E, Tricky Dick for CNN, First Family of Hip Hop for Bravo, TruInside for truTV, Generation X for Nat Geo, The Hair Goddess for TLC, and multiple specials for History. As SVP of Unscripted Development, Pete oversees a large slate of diverse projects that truly reflects Left/Right’s “mass and class” brand—smart, artfully-crafted shows that appeal to a wide audience—from premium doc anthologies to live events and international formats.

Pete was born in the Bronx and raised in Pleasantville, New York—an incongruity that has given his friends years of ball-breaking pleasure. He’s a graduate of Princeton University.

Frank Koughan was lured from his quiet home in Querétaro, Mexico to join the Left/Right team when the company was producing a true crime series called Rich & Reckless. But cadavers and cold-blooded killers could only hold his attention for so long, and he soon turned his attention towards the comparatively placid field of historical documentaries. However, his first two highly-rated History Channel specials also dealt with the deceased: Stealing Lincoln's Body and The Real Face of Jesus. His follow-up film, about Thomas Jefferson, also begins with the founding father on his deathbed. It was around this time that Frank decided to turn his attention back to current events.

Frank now heads up the documentary unit at Left/Right that is responsible for multiple episodes of the acclaimed PBS series Frontline. Over the last several years, Frank has produced or supervised nearly a dozen Frontline projects, ranging from an exploration of the high school dropout crisis in America (Dropout Nation) to the tragic school shootings in Newtown, CT (Raising Adam Lanza) to a troubling case involving the suicide of a police officer’s girlfriend (A Death In St. Augustine), among many others. Frank’s enviable skills as a writer, researcher, and interviewer have been essential to the growth of the company’s long-form and feature documentary work, and we are proud to have him on our team.

Prior to his work with Left/Right, Frank produced documentaries for Bill Moyers and Dan Rather Reports, and spent eight years working on the legendary CBS News series 60 Minutes. He has won two Emmy Awards, a Columbia DuPont Award, a George Polk Award, and a Loeb Award. The fact that only the last award came with any sort of cash prize (two grand, split three ways) was a major factor in his relocation to Mexico.

Michael LaHaie is that rare producer, director, and editor who has somehow managed to straddle the worlds of narrative and documentary, comedy and drama, production and post.

As an editor, Michael collaborated on George Ratliff’s acclaimed documentary Hell House, which premiered at the Toronto Film festival and has become something of a cult classic. He also worked with Chris Eigeman on his feature debut Turn the River, starring Famke Janssen and Rip Torn (nominated for an Indie Spirit Award in 2009). He teamed up with George Ratliff for a second time on the feature Salvation Boulevard, which starred Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, and Pierce Brosnan and premiered at the Sundance film festival. Michael's television credits also run the scripted-to-unscripted gamut, from multiple seasons of Bravo's landmark reality series Queer Eye For The Straight Guy to the acclaimed Adult Swim scripted comedy Delocated. At Left/Right, Michael has worked on many different productions, most notably serving as Co-Executive Producer and showrunner on seasons one and two of our beloved series Small Town Security.

Michael's background as an editor, his ability to layer stories with unexpected moments and surprises, and his singular focus on understanding and empathizing with protagonists and antagonists alike are the key elements that bind his work together. He also suffers from an acute addiction to fine dining and live music, which requires constant income to support the habit.

Jeremy is a gifted cameraman and still photographer who has been with the company since its inception. He frequently serves as the Director of Photography on various Left/Right productions, and is an essential member of our creative team. In addition to his contributions on set, Jeremy serves as a technical advisor across all Left/Right pilots and series, and oversees the team responsible for the company’s substantial camera and lighting department. Jeremy is talented, tireless, and highly organized...three virtues that are all too uncommon in unscripted production.

Bridget Stout leads the Human Resources department at Left/Right. She has a diverse background studying business, art history, and Italian studies. Her intellectual curiosity about people and organizations drives her passion to create happy and meaningful workplaces. Before joining our Left/Right team, she spent six years as the Director of Human Resources at a nonprofit organization in the global education field.

Although she’s originally from Pennsylvania, Bridget now lives in Upstate Manhattan where she strives to provide HR support to her family. Along with her daughter and husband, she volunteers at her local school, and even feeds stray cats. When she isn’t problem solving in the office or throughout her community, you can find her sailing on the Hudson River or curled up with a fiction novel.

Stuart hails from across the pond in London, where he worked for the BBC, ITV, and numerous other production companies on programmes (A.K.A. ‘programs’) as diverse as Saturday Night Takeaway, The Royal Variety Performance, the London Olympics, and The Friday Night Project. After stints working in New York and Sydney, he became Head of Production at Predictable Media in London for two years before upping sticks and returning to New York in 2014, where he joined Left/Right as a Line Producer—shepherding shows such as 3AM, Uncorked, The Zoo, Frontline, and numerous seasons of The Circus.

He regularly perplexes people with British slang. Smashing.

Originally from Maryland, Peter Osinski started his career shooting and editing for commercial and government clients in the DC area. In 2013, he moved to New York to pursue broadcast post production as an assistant editor—but quickly shifted focus to post-production engineering.

Since Peter started at Left/Right in 2019, he’s helped guide us through dozens of series and one pandemic. The latter completely changed the way we operate, with Peter and his team moving our entire editorial staff to remote work within three weeks. In the years since, he’s led the redesign and construction of nearly every aspect of our technical infrastructure, which is now built for the flexibility of a hybrid workforce while being more robust and resilient than ever before.

When time allows, Peter enjoys stepping away from technology completely with a variety of hobbies that keep him in the great outdoors, usually near the water…and preferably in an area without cell service.

Rose began working at Left/Right in 2011 as a Rights & Clearances Assistant, and rose (pun intended) through the ranks to Supervisor in the years that followed. She is our point person for network deliverables and clearance procedures. Managing a growing department that deals with a seemingly endless to-do list, Rose sees herself as a centrifuge of production: her job is to facilitate open communication between various departments in order to ensure that everyone is talking and all is in order.

Rose was born and raised on the south shore of Long Island, and presently resides (along with her cats Gizmo and Gato) in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She is also the captain of Left/Right’s volleyball and softball teams, and as such has been crowned as our social coordinator or, as she prefers, Centrifuge Of After-Work Activities.

Ratidzo started her career in entertainment as most hungry new grads do: as an intern. Opportunity struck when she became the assistant to Oscar-nominated film director Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger). Ratidzo then went on to spend two years at Innovative Artists before venturing off the scripted path and into unscripted territory. At Talos Films, her love for nonfiction grew as she crafted decks and organized archival footage. Now, as an Executive Assistant at Left/Right, she is an aficionado of calendars and development grids, and works with the development team on new ideas.

Born near the equator in Zimbabwe and raised in the sunniest parts of Northern California, Ratidzo has lived in Brooklyn for a near decade and bravely endures East Coast winters.