Kieran Turner, the documentary filmmaker who created the web series “Wallflowers,” died Dec. 23 in West Hollywood. He was 56 years old.
Turner’s death after a battle with cancer was confirmed by Christy Gross, president of CLG3 Communications.
In addition to creating “Wallflowers,” Turner wrote and produced the online web series that ran for two seasons from 2013 to 2014 and followed four friends who joined a support group to help them get dates. The show starred Gibson Fraser, Sarah Saltzberg, Christina Tisdale, Susan Louise O’Connor and Ricky Dunlop and is now streaming on Dekkoo.
Through his independent production company Eight Track Tape Productions, which works in both film and television, Turner directed and produced the documentary “Jobriath AD,” about the 1970s glam rock musician who died of AIDS. The production company specializes in telling stories relevant to the LGBTQ+ community, both fiction and non-fiction.
While working at Cinemarket, Turner helped finance and market films such as “Terminator Salvation,” “Love & Mercy,” “From the Rough,” “Very Good Girls” and “Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.”
Turner’s first feature film, “24 Nights,” which he directed, wrote and produced as his graduate thesis at New York University, has been optioned for distribution by TLA Releasing. His screenplay for “Black Dogs” has been blacklisted for 2022 and is currently in development with Star Thrower Entertainment.
At the time of his death, Turner was working on Ghost Lights: Reclaiming Theater in the Age of AIDS, a documentary detailing the impact of the AIDS epidemic on theater. Turner is survived by his cousins on the East Coast and his “close family of friends.”