Kieth Merrill

Kieth W. Merrill (born May 22, 1940) is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America, and received an Academy Award for The Great American Cowboy (1973) and a nomination for Amazon (1997).

He published a novel, The Evolution of Thomas Hall, through Shadow Mountain in May 2011. His first fantasy novel, The Immortal Crown, was published by Shadow Mountain in May 2016.

The son of artist/landscape architect David Merrill, and playwright/actress Leola Green Merrill, Kieth was born and raised in Farmington, Utah, a small, pioneer-founded town 20 miles north of Salt Lake City.

As an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a young man he served as a missionary for the church in Denmark for two-and-a-half years.

Merrill graduated in 1967 with a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University (BYU). He is married to Dagny Johnson and they are the parents of eight children. They reside in Northern California. Merrill was commissioned by the LDS Church's First Presidency to produce the films Legacy and The Testaments for the state-of-the-art 70 mm Legacy Theater at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Merrill has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern Virginia University and president of the BYU Alumni Association. He received the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Award from BYU when he delivered the commencement address to the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications in 2007.