The 44-year-old producer of Euphoria and The Idol, Kevin Turen, passed away. Over the weekend, Turen unexpectedly passed away. It is unknown at this time what caused his death.
As of right now, the cause of his death is unknown. The producer leaves behind two sons, James and Jack, and his wife, Evelina. “This world is going to be less without Kevin; he was so incredibly special,” said his father, Edward Turen, in a statement on Sunday night.
After producing Larry Clark’s Wassup Rockers, Turen went on to collaborate with Sam Levinson on the productions of Trey Shultz’s Waves, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, Kornel Mondruczo’s Pieces of a Woman, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, and Ti West’s X trilogy.
Tributes pour in for Kevin Turen
Kevin’s closest friend and CEO of PMC, the parent company of Deadline, Jay Penske, expressed that his family and friends remained his greatest passion in spite of his many achievements in Hollywood. With great pride in his offspring, Kevin and his spouse, Evelina, are committed to teaching their kids strong morals and guiding them to have a positive impact on the world.
A deep sense of loss permeates the collective heart as it mourns for them. Today, one of the town’s brightest rising stars passed away, and Kevin will be sadly missed.
Family and colleagues of the New York City native, such as British independent film producer Cassian Elwes, paid tribute to him shortly after his passing. He expressed his sadness on Nov. 13 on X, the former Twitter, saying, “A good friend and true indie filmmaker died tonight too young.”
How sad I am. Hug those you care about. Life is valuable yet short.” “What people don’t realize is that Hollywood is actually a small town,” Elwes went on. At some point, everybody meets everyone.
Even fewer people consistently produce independent films within the indie film circuit. Since we are all like-minded souls, we all know each other extremely well. Tonight, a significant member of our group passed away.”
Remembering Kevin Turen
Turen had a close relationship with Ashley and Sam Levinson. Together, the three formed Little Lamb Productions, the production company behind HBO’s hugely popular drama series Euphoria, which has received nine Emmy Awards out of a possible 25 nominations.
Additionally, Turen and the Levinsons produced the highly anticipated HBO series The Idol as well as the 2020 feature film Pieces of a Woman, which nominated star Vanessa Kirby for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
X (2022) and Pearl (2022), the first two installments of his critically acclaimed X trilogy starring Mia Goth, as well as the upcoming third film Maxine, were produced by him in close collaboration with filmmaker Ti West.
Turen began his career in the film industry as an employee of Capital Entertainment, which later changed its name to First Look Studios. At First Look, he started out as a creative executive before rising to the position of president of production and assisting in the company’s expansion from four to over 150 workers.
Turen acquired and distributed over 100 films during his tenure at First Look, some of which were The Proposition, The Dead Girl (2006), and An American Crime (2007).
After that, he relocated to Infinity Media, where he held the position of president of production until joining Treehouse Pictures as a principal. Turen gained notoriety at Treehouse by producing films for Nicholas Jareki, including the Richard Gere-starring Arbitrage (2012) and J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost (2013), which starred Robert Redford.
He also produced That Awkward Moment (2014), 99 Homes (2014), and At Any Price (2012) for the company.
Along with The Weeknd, Turen and the Levinsons produced the HBO miniseries The Idol. Similar to Euphoria, The Idol was a social media sensation, but not for the reasons intended since it debuted to unfavorable reviews and was plagued by production rumors.
