Morgan Pehme

As founder and CEO of the production company Merlion Entertainment, Pehme executive produced his first feature film in 2004. The movie, Exist, directed by Esther Bell.

The next year, Pehme produced Nightmare, which he also co-wrote with the film's director, Dylan Bank. For their collaboration, Pehme and Bank were awarded the jury prize for Best Screenplay at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The film was released in the United States by IFC Films.

In 2012, Pehme made his directorial debut with Nothing Sacred, a fantasy horror film starring William Sadler, Thierry Lhermitte, Philippe Nahon, Eric Godon, Debbie Rochon, Naama Kates and Alan Barnes Netherton. Again, Pehme collaborated with Bank, this time as co-directors and writers.[3]

Pehme is the co-director, producer and writer of the Netflix Original documentary Get Me Roger Stone (2017),[4] which explores the life and career of conservative strategist and Donald Trump advisor, Roger Stone, who played an integral role in Trump's election as President of the United States.[5] The film, which took Pehme and his co-directors Daniel DiMauro and Dylan Bank five years to make,[6] premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.[7]

Early in Pehme's journalism career, he served as a columnist and managing editor for The Queens Courier, a community newspaper.[8][9][10]

From January 2008 to January 2010, Pehme wrote The Brooklyn Optimist, a blog focused primarily on politics, the arts, and community empowerment in Brooklyn. In September 2008, Pehme, a critic of Vito Lopez, ran in the Democratic primary to represent a portion of Greenpoint, Brooklyn as a County Committee Member in the Kings County Democratic Party.

On September 19, 2011, Pehme was named one of City Hall's Rising Stars Under 40[11] for his work as executive director of New York Civic, a group founded by former New York City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern.

On August 18, 2012, Pehme was hired as editor-in-chief of the newspaper City & State, which covers New York politics.[12] During Pehme's tenure, City & State won a number of New York State Press Association awards , including Best Coverage of Elections/Politics, 2013, for which he was personally recognized, along with Nick Powell, Jon Lentz and Aaron Short.[13]

On December 23, 2014, Politico reported that Morgan Pehme had departed City & State.

On January 29, 2015, Politico wrote that Morgan Pehme had been hired as executive director of EffectiveNY, a nonpartisan government watchdog group and public policy think tank founded by businessman Bill Samuels.

On October 20, 2015, Talkers magazine reported that Samuels would host a new weekly Sunday radio show on AM970 in New York City called "Effective Radio with Bill Samuels", which Pehme would co-host and produce.[14]

New York Nonprofit Media named Pehme to its 2017 class of 40 Under 40 Rising Stars of the New York nonprofit world for his work as Executive Director of EffectiveNY.[15]

Pehme is a former adjunct professor of mass communications, journalism, TV and film at St. John's University.