JOHN DIETSCH
Biography 310 415 9232
John Dietsch, an innovator in the field of traditional and digital reality-based media, is best
known for his pioneering efforts in reality-based television and digital platforms with particular
skills in lifestyle, adventure and travel-based television and new media. Dietsch has a diversified and award-winning history of production, direction, and
creative medi
a successes including more than twenty awards for television production. Dietsch’s
focus on traditional TV series for cable -- as a showrunner, supervising producer and executive
producer -- combined with his executive management experience as a new media pioneer, makes
him an ideal candidate for executive, creative and production management in a media world that
is quickly converging with emerging digital technologies. Dietsch's original foray into convergent media concerned his passion for fly fishing in the creation of Hook.tv Adventure Guides, a TV and new media model that was on the web and TV for five years from 2007 through 2012. PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE OVERSIGHT
Over the last two decades, Dietsch has established himself as a leader in non-fiction production,
branded entertainment, and new media with expertise in a variety of creative and management
positions in TV series development, production and post. Dietsch has created and produced
more than 300 programs including over 200 original episodes for television, and nearly twentyfive
award-winning pilots, series, or one-offs in more than 35 countries across the globe, and
throughout the United States – focusing on real people pushing the envelope in extraordinary
circumstances. Dietsch has been a showrunner and/or executive producer on hundreds of episodes including
series for Scripps Networks, Discovery, Versus, Fox Sports, CNBC, Outdoor Channel and
shows that were syndicated to the affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS. Dietsch’s eclectic background also includes soliciting and integrating brands into original
programming. Client/partners have included Chrysler, Honda, Apple, Bank of America, Toyota,
Suzuki, AMTRACK, The State of California, The National Park Service, New Zealand and
many others to integrate them seamlessly into his TV series. Dietsch has also produced and directed dozens of corporate videos and films for clients like
Merrill Lynch, Kaiser Permanente, Edison International, and Hewlett Packard. He also
produced and directed Rancho Alamitos: An Island in Time -- a 16-minute Ken-Burns-style
exhibit documentary about California history that will debut in the summer of 2012. He has
produced or directed nearly 100 episodes about the subject of the Golden State, focusing on the
extreme and adventurous lifestyles and experiences available in California. Dietsch was the VP in charge of Production at K2 Communications before reforming Castle
Creek Productions Inc. in 1999 that has served as a loan out vehicle and a production company
of record for a variety of programs. Originally, in the late eighties and early 1990s, Dietsch produced and wrote several brand-based
TV series and films featuring sports like skiing, surfing and outdoor sports for other production
companies that aired on ESPN. He also was a corporate video producer for ad agencies like
Kresser Craig. As a Department Head on Robert Redford’s Oscar winning feature film A River Runs Through
It , John was in charge of all the fly fishing scenes in the film A River Runs Through It. He has
produced, directed, consulted on and been featured in more than fifty fly fishing based media
across the world, has produced many award winning TV episodes on the subject, and has cowritten
an award-winning book called Shadowcasting. DIGITAL AND ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
John was the founder and CEO of Hook.tv where he raised more than $1.2 million to develop a
web-based portal to help create niche-based video communities for adventure travelers and
associated brands. Launched in April 2007 as a beta site, Hook.tv Fly Fishing was the first
niche network on the Hook.tv platform with partnerships that included Outdoor Channel,
VERSUS, ORVIS®, and Suzuki. The Hook.tv Fly Fishing Network launched its beta video
community in Spring 2007, using third parties, and migrated to a fully-owned proprietary engine
based on scalable architecture. Hook.tv Adventure Guides: Fishing Edition is a sister TV series
that aired five seasons of programs that were designed to cross-promote the Hook.tv brand with
unique reality-style TV series on VERSUS and Outdoor Channel. Dietsch also consults with a variety of clients on how best to utilize video-based strategies across
multiple platforms and is currently involved with brand-integrated IMAX theatrical films (Cool
Planet) and digital media to create a proprietary social networking platform leveraging a largescreen
theatrical media property. He is also currently consulting on an IMAX theatre film on
Adventure Travel and extreme snowboarding that features Quicksilver athletes Travis Rice and
Olympic Gold Medalist Torrah Bright. FLY FISHING TALENT AND CONSULTING WORK
John is perhaps best known for doubling as Brad Pitt’s stunt double in the dangerous final scene
of Robert Redford’s Oscar winning feature film A River Runs Through It. Dietsch is known
world wide as a fly fishing celebrity and has consulted on and starred in a half-dozen TV
commercials for the sport in places like Japan and New Zealand, and is the co-author of the book
Shadowcasting. Dietsch currently hosts Adventure Guides, a prime-time TV series on Outdoor
Channel scheduled to air in its fourth season later in 2011. Dietsch travels the globe to the
world’s most exclusive fly fishing destinations profiling the world’s most colorful fly fishing
guides. The TV series is poised to expand into a multitude of reality-based stories about guides
in other outdoor sports upon acquisition of sponsorships and co-production partners. When not working on media projects, speaking on panels, fly-fishing or skiing, John spends as
much time as he can in the Pacific Palisades with his wife Mollie and two children, Johnny and
Sarah.
