Brian Kates | |
|---|---|
| Other name | Brian A. Kates |
| Education | New York University (Tisch School of the Arts) |
| Occupations | Film and television editor |
| Spouse | Jonathan Cohen (m. 2012) |
Brian Kates (also credited as Brian A. Kates) is a film and television editor. His film credits include The Savages, Shortbus, Killing Them Softly, Kiss of the Spider Woman, It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, All The Beauty and the Bloodshed, Private Life, Lackawanna Blues, We the Animals, Tarnation and his television credits include Succession, Treme, The Plot Against America and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Kates won Emmy Awards for his work on the television film Taking Chance and the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Kates grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, in a family of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. He is the son of Jacqueline Kates and Michael Kates. His mother served as mayor of Teaneck from 2002 to 2006. His father was a partner at the law firm Kates Nussman Rapone Ellis & Farhi in Hackensack, New Jersey.
After graduating from Teaneck High School, Kates majored in film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he minored in Judaic studies. He pursued a career in film editing, preferring the post-production process to writing or directing.
Kates began his career as an assistant editor, working with James Lyons, Norman Buckley, Kate Sanford, Sabine Hoffman and Nancy Baker. His first feature-film editing credit was Latin Boys Go to Hell (1997), directed by Ela Troyano, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2001, Kates edited The Laramie Project, which led to several projects with HBO. He also worked with directors associated with Broadway and musical theatre, including Moisés Kaufman, George C. Wolfe, John Cameron Mitchell and Bill Condon.
Kates was an editor on Shortbus (2006), directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He also collaborated with Mitchell on How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017), and podcast Anthem: Homunculus (2019).
Kates edited the pilot episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which was filmed in late 2016. In 2019, he received an Emmy Award for his work on the episode. Discussing his editing approach on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Kates cited Borscht Belt comedy, Hollywood Technicolor musicals, Bob Fosse's Lenny, Yiddish cinema and Joan Rivers as sources of inspiration.
In 2022, Kates edited Fire Island, a romantic comedy directed by Andrew Ahn and inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In the same year, he edited All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) along with Joe Bini and Amy Foote.
In 2023, Kates served as an executive producer of the documentary film Israelism.
In 2025, Kates edited Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Bill Condon, and the documentary It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, directed by Amy Berg. Both films screened in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival. Kates worked alongside Stacey Goldate on the Jeff Buckley documentary.
Kates's other film editing credits include Bessie, Jack Goes Boating, Kill the Messenger, Kill Your Darlings, Killing Them Softly, Lackawanna Blues, Nights in Rodanthe, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Private Life, Shadowboxer, Taking Chance, Tarnation, Lee Daniel's The Butler, The Savages, The Woodsman and We the Animals. His television editing credits include Believe, The Big C, Kings, Treme, Succession and The Plot Against America.
Kates married Jonathan Elliot Cohen in New York City on October 7, 2012. The ceremony was officiated by Amichai Lau-Lavie, then a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.