Carlton Cuse

Carlton Cuse
Courtesy of A+E Networks
Born	Arthur Carlton Cuse (1959-03-22) March 22, 1959 (age 57) Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Producer screenwriter
Years active	1984–present

Arthur Carlton Cuse (born March 22, 1959) is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for the American television series Lost, for which he made the Time magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010. Cuse is considered a pioneer in transmedia storytelling.

Cuse was born in Mexico City, Mexico to American parents. His father was working in Mexico for Cuse's grandfather, who had a machine-tool manufacturing business. Cuse's paternal grandparents were Latvians, of Baltic German heritage. After a few years in Mexico City, his parents moved to Boston, Massachusetts. A few years later, his father accepted a job in Tustin, California. Cuse was raised a Roman Catholic. He went to boarding school in the tenth grade to The Putney School in Vermont. The school was on a working dairy farm, and placed a strong emphasis on an education in the arts, music and the outdoors. It was at The Putney School, Cuse said, that he realized he wanted to be a writer.

Cuse attended Harvard University (class of 1981) and was recruited at freshmen registration by Ted Washburn for the rowing team. In his words, he became "a hardcore athlete". Cuse's original plan was to attend medical school but he instead majored in American history. During his junior year at Harvard, Cuse organized a test screening for the makers of the Paramount film Airplane!. The producers wanted to record the audience reaction to time the final cut of the jokes in the film. Cuse said that was when he started thinking about a career in film.

Cuse teamed up with a Harvard classmate, Hans Tobeason, and made a documentary about rowing at Harvard called Power Ten. He convinced actor, writer and fellow Harvard graduate George Plimpton to narrate the film. After graduating, Cuse headed for Hollywood, and worked as an assistant to a studio head, then as a script reader. By working as a reader, he said, he learned screenwriting.