Tom Musca

Tom Musca (born 1951) is an American filmmaker and professor.

Biography

Musca graduated Phi Beta Kappa rom Rutgers University in 1973 The film was nominated for seven Independent Spirit Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay honors for Musca. Additionally, Edward James Olmos, was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his role in the film and actor Lou Diamond Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe. Stand and Deliver is preserved in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Musca has gone on to write, produce and direct for film, television and the theater. He was a co-writer and producer for Hollywood Pictures'Money for Nothing with John Cusack, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Benicio del Toro and Samuel Goldwyn's Tortilla Soup starring Hector Elizondo and Raquel Welch. He wrote and directed Melting Pot aka Race starring Paul Rodriguez and was a writer for Disney Channel's Gotta Kick It Up! starring America Ferrera.

Since 2010 Musca has been the head of the MFA Screenwriting track and Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Miami School of Communication. Since that time he has gone on to become one of Miami's most prolific producers; in 2020 he wrote, produced and directed Chateau Vato, a rags to riches comedy set in Miami and his fourth film for HBO. On March 9, 2023, he premiered Dying To Direct, a thirty minute film based on one of his short stories at the 40th Annual Miami Film Festival, which he wrote, produced and co-directed. Aguadilla, his film noir thriller premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in 2025 and the 42nd Annual Miami Film Festival, his fifth film to be showcased at this prestigious forum.

Filmography Little Nikita (story) 1988 Stand and Deliver (writer/producer) 1988 Melting Pot (film) aka Race (writer/director) 1998 Tortilla Soup (writer, producer) 2001 Make Love Great Again (producer, additional writing, actor) 2018 Chateau Vato (writer/director/producer) 2020 Amaraica (producer) 2021 Dying to Direct (writer, director, producer) 2023 Aguadilla (writer, producer, director) 2025