In recent years Tom Musca has become one of Miami’s most prolific film producers, writing and co-directing with UM grad Alexander Zeke Musca Aguadilla starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Alina Robert and Rene Moran. This tropical film noir from Abla Films is currently in post-production.
He produced, wrote and co-directed with former UM grad Tony Mendez the short drama Dying to Direct which had its world premiere at the 2023 Miami Film Festival. Switching to comedy, Musca produced, wrote and directed Chateau Vato which premiered on HBO and won Best Actress for Elpidia Carrillo at the 2021 Barcelona Film Festival. He produced UM graduate Tim Sparks’ Amaraica which collected the trophy for Best U.S. feature at the 2020 NY Latino Film Festival and is streaming on MAX through 2023. Continuing his association with HBO, Musca produced Make Love Great Again, featuring the debuts of screenwriter Shane Kinsler and director Aaron Agrasanchez, both former UM students.
Tom Musca first captured attention as the producer and co-writer of Stand and Deliver. The popular Warner Bros. film starred Edward James Olmos and earned an Oscar nomination as well as six Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. It is preserved in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.
In a career spanning four decades, Musca has written roles for a wide array of Hollywood acting talent, including John Cusack, Andy Garcia, James Gandolfini, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Benicio del Toro, Raquel Welch, Sidney Poitier, Paul Rodriguez, CCH Pounder, Hector Elizondo, River Phoenix, Cliff Robertson, Michael Madsen and America Ferrera.
Produced screen credits include: Imagen Award winner Tortilla Soup; Hollywood Pictures’ Money For Nothing; Columbia Pictures’ Little Nikita; Disney Channel’s Gotta Kick It Up!, the #1 cable show of 2003 for pre-teen girls; Flight of Fancy for Showtime, Race for HBO and the sit-com You Again? for NBC.
Tom Musca is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers and earned his MFA at UCLA. He was the Moseley Fellow for Creative Writing at Pomona College, a guest lecturer at the Sundance Institute, NYU, USC, AFI, and has conducted MPAA producing and screenwriting workshops on four continents. Since 2010 he has been the head of the MFA screenwriting track at the University of Miami where he received the Robert and Christine Staub Faculty Excellence Award in 2014.