Kent Beyda is an American film editor who has worked on a wide range of films.
Starting out as an assistant editor on John Cassavetes

John Cassavetes

John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...

' Opening Night, Allan Arkush

Allan Arkush

Allan Arkush is an American cult film and television director and frequent collaborator of Joe Dante....

's Rock 'n' Roll High School

Rock 'n' Roll High School

Rock 'n' Roll High School is a 1979 musical comedy film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Allan Arkush, and featuring the Ramones.The film starred P. J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard...

, and Joe Dante

Joe Dante

Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....

's The Howling

The Howling

The Howling is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It was the inspiration for the 1981 film The Howling, although the plot of the film was only vaguely similar to that of the book....

, he moved into editing on the Julie Corman

Julie Corman

Julie Corman is an American film producer. Corman is married to film producer and director Roger Corman.-Career:Julie Corman began her career in the film industry by she marrying legendary film director/ producer, Roger Corman. Her first feature producing credits consisted of a series of "Night...

 produced Saturday the 14th

Saturday the 14th

Saturday the 14th is an American horror-comedy film released in 1981, directed by Howard R. Cohen and produced by Julie Corman. The film was followed by Saturday the 14th Strikes Back in 1988.-Plot:...

. On that film Beyda met his wife Nancy who was at that time working as Corman's assistant. He went on to do a series of music videos for Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart

Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....

, Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

, Dokken

Dokken

Dokken is an American heavy metal and hard rock band formed in 1978. They split up in 1989 but reformed four years later. The group accumulated numerous charting singles and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide...

, Bette Midler

Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

 and Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....

, Aldo Nova

Aldo Nova

Aldo Nova is a Canadian guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and producer, Nova gained fame with his self-titled debut album Aldo Nova in 1981, and its accompanying single "Fantasy", which climbed to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.-Career:Signing with Portrait Records, Nova released a self-produced...

, Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, and Arkush's followup to Rock n Roll High School called Get Crazy

Get Crazy

Get Crazy is a 1983 film directed by Allan Arkush and starring Malcolm McDowell, Allen Garfield, Daniel Stern, Gail Edwards, and Ed Begley, Jr.-Premise:...

. He then edited the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...

.

Beyda's first film for a major studio was Fright Night

Fright Night

# "Fright Night" – 3:45# "You Can't Hide from the Beast Inside" – 4:14# "Good Man in a Bad Time" – 3:41# "Rock Myself to Sleep" – 2:57# "Let's Talk" – 2:52# "Armies of the Night" – 4:34...

, a horror comedy for Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

. Next he edited Out of Bounds

Out of Bounds

Out of Bounds is a 1986 American action-thriller feature film directed by Richard Tuggle and starring Anthony Michael Hall. It is currently not available on DVD.-Plot:...

, directed by Richard Tuggle for Columbia. Beyda went on to edit Innerspace

Innerspace

Innerspace is a 1987 science fiction comedy film directed by Joe Dante and produced by Michael Finnell. Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. The film was inspired by the classic 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage. It stars Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Robert Picardo and...

produced by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

 and directed by Joe Dante, X: The Unheard Music a documentary about the Los Angeles punk group X, Alien Nation

Alien Nation

Alien Nation may refer to:* Alien Nation , the 1988 motion picture, and several spin-off properties:** Alien Nation , the 1989–1990 television series, and five made-for-TV movies that continue its story:...

, Fear starring Ally Sheedy

Ally Sheedy

Alexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy is an American film and stage actress, as well as the author of two books. She is best known for her roles in the Brat Pack films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.-Early life:...

, Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a 1990 American horror comedy film, and the sequel to Gremlins . It was directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker...

(Spielberg and Dante), True Identity

True Identity

True Identity is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Charles Lane and starring Lenny Henry, Frank Langella and Anne-Marie Johnson. The plot revolves around a black man , who disguises himself as a white man to escape the mob....

, Mr. Saturday Night

Mr. Saturday Night

Mr. Saturday Night is a 1992 film that marks the directorial debut of its star, Billy Crystal.It focuses on the rise and fall of Buddy Young Jr., a fictional stand-up comedian. Crystal produced and co-wrote the screenplay with the writing duo Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz...

Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal

William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...

's directorial debut, The Flintstones

The Flintstones

The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...

(Spielberg and Brian Levant), Forget Paris

Forget Paris

Forget Paris is a 1995 film produced, directed, co-written by and starring Billy Crystal as an NBA referee and Debra Winger as an independent working woman whose lives are interrupted by love and marriage....

(also directed by Crystal), Jingle All The Way

Jingle All the Way

Jingle All the Way is a 1996 American family comedy film directed by Brian Levant and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, James Belushi and Robert Conrad...

(with Arnold Schwarzenegger), The Out-of-Towners

The Out-of-Towners (1999 film)

The Out-of-Towners is a 1999 film starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. The movie is a remake of a 1970 film by the same name; the original version, written by Neil Simon, starred Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.-As remake of 1970 film:...

with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas is a 2000 comedy film and prequel to 1994's The Flintstones based on the hit cartoon series of the same name, produced by Amblin Entertainment and Hanna-Barbera and distributed by Universal Studios...

, Big Momma's House

Big Momma's House

Big Momma's House is a 2000 American crime comedy film directed by Raja Gosnell, written by Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer, and starring Martin Lawrence as FBI agent Malcolm Turner. The majority of the film took place in Cartersville, Georgia, but the film was shot on location in California. The...

, Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, S. Darko

S. Darko

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale is a 2009 direct-to-video film directed by Chris Fisher and stars Daveigh Chase, Briana Evigan, and Ed Westwick. It is the sequel to the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko...

, Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex

Jonah Woodson Hex is a Western comic book antihero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Despite his poor reputation and personality, Hex is bound by a personal...

, and Yogi Bear

Yogi Bear (film)

Yogi Bear is a 2010 American live-action film adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Yogi Bear Show directed by Eric Brevig. The film stars Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake, Tom Cavanagh, Anna Faris, T. J. Miller, Nate Corddry, and Andrew Daly....

.

As a consultant, Beyda has participated in the films George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle was an American animated series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who created The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The character George was inspired by the legend of Tarzan. It ran for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on the American TV...

, Dude, Where's My Car?

Dude, Where's My Car?

Dude, Where's My Car? is a 2000 American stoner comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. The film stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as two young men who find themselves wasted and forget where they parked their car....

, Robots

Robots (film)

Robots is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox, and was released theatrically on March 11, 2005. The story was created by Chris Wedge and William Joyce, a children's book author/illustrator. The two were trying to create a film version of...

, Idiocracy

Idiocracy

Idiocracy is a 2006 American film, a satirical science fiction comedy, directed by Mike Judge and starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews....

, Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four (film)

Fantastic Four is a 2005 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four. It was directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. It is the second live-action Fantastic Four film to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman only for the...

, Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! (film)

Horton Hears a Who!, also known as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, is a 2008 American CGI-animated comedy feature film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. It is the fourth feature film from Blue Sky Studios, and the third feature film based on a Dr. Seuss book, following How the Grinch...

, and Despicable Me

Despicable Me

Despicable Me is a 2010 American computer-animated 3D comedy film from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment that was released on July 9, 2010 in the United States. The film features the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and...

. He has worked on location in New York, Paris, San Francisco, Vancouver, Australia, and New Zealand. He is a member of American Cinema Editors

American Cinema Editors

Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...

 and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

.

In September 2009, Beyda took part in "Editing for Animation", the second part of the Academy's Perspectives in Editing series. The event featured a panel of five current leading animation editors, Beyda, John Carnochan, Kevin Nolting, Nancy Frazen, and Lois Freeman-Fox.

Beyda has three children: Emily, Lauren, and Jackson.

External links