Atlanta based president tyler perry studio He died Friday night when the small plane he was piloting crashed off Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The studio revealed Saturday that its 62-year-old president and general supervisor Steve Mensch has died.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend Steve Mensch,” the studio said in a statement. “Steve was a beloved member of our team for over eight years and was well-loved in the Atlanta community. It’s hard to imagine not seeing him smiling across the hall. We will miss him greatly. Our hearts go out to his family. We all send him our prayers.”
Florida Branch of Freeway Safety and Motor Automobiles using AP
The clash occurred in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa. Photographs from the scene show the plane stopped on a road on the other side. The Federal Gliding Administration and the Nationwide Transportation Protection Board are investigating.
According to FAA data, the single-engine car RV-12IS was registered to Mensch’s home address in the Atlanta suburb of Fayetteville.
In a post on Instagram on Saturday night, Perry wrote: “I’ve been trying all day to understand this tragedy – what went wrong with that plane. Steve loved to fly, and he loved that plane; he was very proud of it. Steve Mensch was really a kind He was a great soul and a great leader. We all respected him at the studio and are saddened by his passing, I am praying for his family as we all try to understand this grief.”
Mensch helped to suggest and conserve Georgia’s film tax credit More than $1 billion per year. Those lavish subsidies have made Georgia the most active playground in America for film and television production.
Mensch became involved in the film industry when he began working for Quality Methods, a company that provides tools for the film industry. After becoming director of strategic production partnerships, he was hired by Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting to run their studio operations. It was here that he began lobbying the Environment Executive for additional support for film and TV production.
Rick Reitz, an actor who also helped create the tax credit, told Atlanta Magazine-Charter that Mensch had previously helped market the environmental 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and helped start the Georgia Manufacturing Partnership, a leisure business lobbying staff.
“He was trying to create a vision for the market before the Olympics and wanted a think tank of people in the community to help Georgia be competitive,” Reitz said. “He was a key figure in our growth to become a strong film and TV market.”
About a year helping plan and build a massive studio in China and a brief stint helping publish Third Rail Studios in suburban Atlanta. Perry hired Mensch in 2016 to assist in the construction and operation of his eponymous studio. The studio is spread across 330 acres of a former military field in southern Atlanta that Perry acquired in 2015.
Mensch died in the same performance in which Perry performed “The Six Triple Eight”, a conflict drama about the most diminutive and all-female Global Conflict II battalion. The film was shot at Atlanta Studios.
Mensch is survived by his wife Daniela and three children.
