Who

A leading independent film producer, Kliot is currently co-president of Mark Cuban's HDNet Films and a partner in Deutsch/Open City Films. His wife and business partner is Joana Vicente.

Backstory

After graduating from Amherst in the mid-1980s, Kliot worked as an assistant director under auteurs like Samuel Fuller and Wim Wenders, and scored his first hit as a producer with Todd Solondz's 1995 breakout feature Welcome to the Dollhouse. In the 1990s, Kliot founded the production companies Blow Up Pictures and Open City along with his wife/business partner Joana Vicente. Since then, the duo have established themselves as leading indie film producers in New York, producing pics like the Mike White-authored Chuck & Buck in 2000 and 2003's Jim Jarmusch-directed Coffee and Cigarettes. In 2003, the company was renamed Deutsch/Open City films after ad mogul Donny Deutsch joined the effort. Not long after, Kliot and Vicente teamed up with Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's high-definition production company, HDNet Films.

Of note

Kliot's films vary from the mainstream romantic comedy Down to You (starring Julia Stiles) to The War Within, a film about a Pakistani terrorist. The company's most recent efforts have included two films starring Parker Posey, Hal Hartley's Fay Grim and Zoe Cassavetes's Broken English, which also features Drea de Matteo and Peter Bogdanovich. Some of HDNet Films' forthcoming productions include the big-budget thriller Awake, a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson, and American Swing, about the now-shuttered Upper West Side sex club Plato's Retreat. Over the years, Kliot has also directed a few short films, including one devoted to faces from the World Trade Center tragedy.

On the side

Kliot is one of the founders of City Harvest, a nonprofit that feeds the homeless by collecting discarded food from area stores and restaurants. He currently serves on the organization's board along with Steve Hanson, Rachael Ray, and Eric Ripert.

Personal

Jason and Joana were wed by a rabbi and a Catholic priest in Lisbon in 1989. They live in Tribeca with their daughter, Hannah.