Gary Newton

In October of 2013, Gary partnered with Graham Gordy and Daniel Campbell to create Mortuus Pater Pictures, LLC. The motion picture production company released its first feature in 2019, the ensemble comedy 'Antiquities,' starring Andrew J. West, Michaela Watkins, Michael Gladis, with Ashley Greene and Mary Steenburgen. An eighth generation native of the Ozarks and graduate of the University of Arkansas, Gary Newton resigned as Executive Vice President of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce to accept a national scholarship to train at New York's American Musical & Dramatic Academy. Since his first professional job as a "Sprocket" on 'Saturday Night Live,' he has had principal and/or recurring roles in a variety of productions - network series, feature films, shorts, stage, commercials, gaming and industrials. He backed up Liza Minnelli on 'The Tonight Show' and serenaded Burt Reynolds with an original song on the set of an NBC sitcom. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical by the Los Angeles Valley Theatre Awards for originating the role of "Anton Schmidt" in the world premier of 'Musical Chairs' by two-time Oscar-winning composer Joel Hirschhorn. The writer of six feature screenplays and a limited series, he was a Finalist in the Slamdance (Top 10) and Chesterfield Writer's Film Project (Paramount Pictures) (Top 50) screenplay competitions. He was also a Quarterfinalist (top 323 of 6,073 entries) in the Motion Picture Academy's Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting and placed another script in the top ten percent the same year. To showcase his writing and performing, the Groundlings/Martin DeMaat-trained improvisational actor became front man and songwriter for 10 Horse Johnson. The all-original, Ozarks-born, Hollywood-bred counter country band played Vegas, Nashville and Memphis and was a regular at Molly Malone's on Fairfax in LA. The group also had a 10-week theatre run as 'Cole Slaw & The Baked Bean Band' with Steve Martin's 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile.' Heard internationally on Dr. Demento, 10HJ was the featured house band for the Sirius XM Playboy Radio holiday series, 'A Playboy Home Companion,' and its five million listeners. As a filmmaker, Gary produced, wrote and directed 'Jo's Town,' a feature documentary, which was named Best American Feature Film by the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, Best Documentary by the KAN Film Festival, and Finalist in the International Family Film Festival. Edited by Michael Ruscio ('True Blood,' 'In Treatment'), 'Jo's Town' was also an Official Selection of the Memphis International, Hot Springs Documentary, Valleyfest, Fayetteville, Gillioz and Little Rock Film Festivals. It also received a featured screening at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock. He was part of a four-actor cast of 'In Order of Appearance,' a short directed by Ruscio, which received the Best Ensemble Cast Award at the Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas. It premiered at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films, was a finalist for Best Short at Method Fest, and was an Official Selection of many others, including the Oxford Film Festival. After 17 years in New York and Los Angeles, Gary and his actor/screenwriter wife, Alanna Hamill Newton, relocated to his native Arkansas to raise their then-three year old twins, where he served as executive vice president of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Little Rock's film commissioner. He worked with the Arkansas Film Commissioner to restore production incentives to Arkansas, co-founded the Arkansas Production Alliance (arfilm), and served as acting chairman and founding board member of the Arkansas Motion Picture Alliance (AMPI). In 2012, he agreed to startup and become president and CEO of Arkansas Learns, a nonprofit, nonpartisan private sector alliance dedicated to the development, retention and attraction of talent as a driver of economic development.