Discover the stories that matter.
Under the Radars tells stories about individuals who strive to change their communities and their world. With vast industry experience in films, documentaries, and music videos, our team is responsible for some of your favorite content, and probably a few other things you might want to check out.
John Paul Horstmann
Producer
John Paul attended the University of Pittsburgh where he founded the student television, UPTV. Through Carl’s guidance, he won the prestigious ACE scholarship in editing in Los Angeles, which led to a career in editing. Notable films include Assassination of Jesse James, Killing Them Softly, Blonde, Cold in July, and Outkast’s Idlewild.
He also shoots and edits many music videos for popular artists such as Billie Eilish, Machine Gun Kelly, Melanie Martinez, Halsey, Outkast, and Doja Cat. He recently produced music documentaries for both Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly which aired on Disney and Hulu.
Some projects he helped develop include:
Southern Charm on Bravo, which he cast and pitched and has been on air for 10 seasons.
Summer House another successful Bravo show which he helped pitch.
I Want My MTV about the creating and glory days of MTV, which he wrote.
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes and upcoming documentary on HBO Max which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ultrasuede a documentary about famed designer Halston.
Chowchilla a chilling true-crime documentary which recently was #1 on HBO Max.
Aditi Sridhar
Producer / Filmmaker
Aditi is a narrative & documentary filmmaker who attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she is a consultant for Pitt’s new media spaces and programming. Her goal is to unearth stories from underrepresented communities that challenge existing perspectives and create conversation.
Aditi, who grew up in nearby Johnstown, interned at Warner Brothers Pictures where she assisted on films such as Barbie, Wonka, and The Color Purple. She was also part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Gold Rising Program. While there, she was tapped by the Academy to hand Academy Award to Ke Huy Quan for his role in Everything Everywhere All At Once during the Oscar broadcast and the Best Picture award to the team from the film, an amazing opportunity for a recent Pitt grad.
This year Aditi premiered her short film Pivot at the South Asian Film Festival in Chicago. Besides her own documentary projects, Aditi is currently working with Carl on an upcoming feature-length documentary Becoming August Wilson, about playwright August Wilson & his upbringing in the historic Hill District.
Carl Kurlander
Writer / Producer
Carl is a screenwriter (St. Elmo’s Fire) and TV writer/producer (Saved by the Bell) who has written screenplays for Columbia, Universal, Paramount, Orion and Disney, multiple television pilots for NBC and Fox, and written and produced over one hundred episodes of television that have aired on NBC, Fox, and CBS.
Carl is a longtime Pittsburgh resident and teaching professor at the University of Pittsburgh where he founded the Pitt in LA program which offers students the chance to travel to Los Angeles to learn about the film and television industry.
Carl has also produced several documentaries about Pittsburgh. Some highlights include:
The Shot Felt Round The World (PBS) about development of the Polio vaccine in Pittsburgh which aired on PBS, the Smithsonian Channel, and BBC.
Burden of Genius about transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl, distributed globally.
My Tale of Two Cities a celebrity-studded personal story about his own journey from Pittsburgh to LA and back again.
Becoming August Wilson an upcoming documentary about the August Wilson’s life in the Hill District and the preservation of his childhood home.
