A storyteller, first and last.
Brian Seth Hurst is a storyteller whose work spans books, theater, immersive media, and emerging technologies, united by one enduring theme: the power of story to transform how we see ourselves and the world.
Long before building a career behind the scenes, Hurst was watching from the wings — quite literally. Growing up in a show business family, he spent his childhood backstage and in the studio, absorbing the craft from the inside. He remembers standing just out of frame as his father interviewed icons like Tony Bennett and Michael Jackson, close enough to see the effect a well-told story had on people in real time. That early, front-row view of storytelling’s power to move an audience — to make them laugh, feel understood, see themselves anew — shaped every chapter of his career since.
His new play Thanksgiving, a poignant comedy about life, death and being caught in between, recently received the Top Script Award at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, honoring this deeply human work about family, love, loss, and redemption during the AIDS epidemic. He is currently in development as co-creator, with acclaimed television producer Tim Kring, of Volentem, an original cross-platform science faction franchise that blends mythology, mystery, science, gaming, and cinematic storytelling into an expansive entertainment storyverse.
As an author, Hurst co-wrote the bestselling children’s book A Pig Tale with the late Olivia Newton-John. He is also the author of WHOLE and The WHOLE Companion Workbook, which explore how our beliefs shape our lives and provide practical tools for personal transformation. He is at work on his next book, Transition: Gracefully Navigating the Space Between What Was and What’s Next.
After stepping away from performing for nearly forty years to build a distinguished career as a producer, strategist, and entertainment executive, Hurst returned to the stage with Full Circle. Having grown up in a show business family, the show is an autobiographical musical that draws on his extraordinary life, past and present, in and around the entertainment industry. Filled with humor, music, and deeply personal stories, the show reflects a lifetime spent both behind the scenes and in the spotlight. He is currently developing A World That Swings, a theatrical journey through the remarkable decade between 1955 and 1965, when music, culture, politics, and technology transformed America.
A pioneer in immersive entertainment, Hurst has produced projects including My Brother’s Keeper (PBS Digital Studios), The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth 360 (Showtime), Gettysburg: A Nation Divided (Quantum ERA), Rolling Loud Hip-Hop Festival 360 (LiveXLive/Samsung), Super Splat Brothers E-Sports Tournament 360 (Samsung), and Passport to Philadelphia (Quantum Era). His newest immersive project, CLIMATICA, combines cinematic storytelling, virtual production, and emerging technologies to create emotionally engaging experiences around one of the defining issues of our time.
Whether writing books, plays, immersive experiences or developing new entertainment franchises, Brian Seth Hurst continues the conversation he first began on stage decades ago — creating stories that combine emotional truth with compelling ideas that invite audiences to laugh, reflect, connect and discover new possibilities within themselves and the world around them.
