Peter Spirer

Peter Spirer, President/CEO of Rugged Entertainment, and Co-Founder of One Bowl Productions is an Academy Award and Emmy Award Nominated director and producer whose films have twice been official selections at Sundance Film Festival. He has produced and/or directed over 32 films including the feature films Just Another Day with Wood Harris and Jamie Hector from The Wire and Dunsmore with W. Earl Brown, Talia Shire, and Kadeem Hardison. His vast catalog of documentaries includes the groundbreaking music doc Rhyme and Reason, on Rolling Stones’ list of 40 greatest music documentaries. Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life, and The Legend of 420 (on the legalization of cannabis) amongst others, as well as the coproductions with QD3: BEEF series of films (I-III), Thug Angel: Life of an Outlaw (on slain rapper Tupac Shakur), Feel Rich (featuring many of today’s urban music artists and impresario Quincy Jones).

Spirer directed and produced Spirit Game: Pride Of A Nation, a documentary about the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team and their efforts to create awareness of their Native Sovereignty. Spirit Game is now included as part of a permanent installation in the Smithsonian Museum Of The American Indian in New York City. His film; Sacheen: Breaking the silence revisits the achievements of Sacheen Littlefeather, who declined the Academy Award on Marlon Brando’s behalf for the Godfather. She is the first woman of color to utilize the Academy Awards to make a political statement.

Recently Spirer has taken film projects in search of distribution under his wing, and to that end, he Executive Produced Queen Mimi, Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe, and Who The F**k Is That Guy: The Fabulous Journey of Michael Alago -- a film about a gay A&R executive who signed Metallica and White Zombie; Giant Killer; Smash which he also wrote and edited. This ultimately led Spirer to start a new distribution arm of Rugged, which has distributed Disarm Hate (on gun violence against the LGBTQ community in the wake of the Pulse nightclub massacre); Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me to Be; the Academy Nominated and widely acclaimed film War at Home, and Bob And The Monster, about outspoken indie-rock hero Bob Forrest, with testimony from his peers, including Courtney Love, Anthony Kiedis and Flea.

Currently Spirer is working on Sign Of The Times, a film about the foundation of Rock n Roll billboards on the Sunset Strip featuring Roger Daltrey (The Who) , Mark Mothersbaugh, (DEVO) Paul Stanley (KISS), Eddie Money (in his final on camera interview), Robby Krieger (The Doors), and music impresarios Irving Azoff and Jac Holzman. Spirer is currently co-directing and producing Kali: Artographer- A film about the discovery of never-before-seen artwork locked away for 40 years, by Kali, a 1960s Long Island housewife seeking a brighter future in California. Her prodigious output, once hidden, now emerges as a secret treasure trove, offering a mesmerizing glimpse into a hidden world of creativity and expression.

Born in New York City and raised in Dalton, Georgia and Miami, Florida, Spirer attended the University of Miami film school bringing awareness to the fledgling genre of music videos to the forefront of film directing with his Miami Breakdown piece featuring his band Z-Toyz. This film went on to win the MTV basement tapes award. He lives in Hollywood with his wife, two children and a revolving door of rescues. He is civically active in Rotary Club of Hollywood and is passionate about his work in WeHo Byco which brings bike safety awareness to the community, including advocating for bike safety lanes within the City of West Hollywood and adjacent areas.

Rugged Entertainment LLC is a full service film and media production company, founded in 2007 by Academy Award Nominated Director Peter Spirer after his tenures at QD3 Entertainment Aslan Productions and Metropolis Films. Its subsidiary, Rugged Releasing was founded in 2019, distributing a variety of films across a wide array of platforms worldwide.