Richard Allen Kirkham (born May 16, 1958) is an American film producer, writer, cinematographer and journalist who is best known for his documentary TV Junkie and appearance in the Netflix documentary Tiger King.
Early life
Kirkham was born in Oklahoma in 1958. He became interested in making films at a young age, and began recording home videos of himself. From the age of 14, Kirkham filmed more than 3,000 hours of a video diary. After graduating college, Kirkham got his first job; a crime reporter at a Las Vegas NBC affiliate.
Career
Anchor and TV Junkie
Kirkham was hired by Inside Edition as an anchor, where he interviewed celebrities like James Brown and Chuck Norris. At one point during this stint, while he was high, Kirkham interviewed then-president George H. W. Bush about drug abuse. He also did a series of stunts during his tenure including being shot out of a cannon, set on fire, and wrestling a nine-foot alligator.
After marrying his first wife and right before the birth of his first child, Kirkham checked into rehab at the encouragement of Inside Edition producers. However, Kirkham's cocaine use eventually caused him to be fired from Inside Edition and subsequent jobs, and divorced from his first wife.
Footage from Kirkham's 3,000 hour-long video diary was used in TV Junkie, a film about Kirkham's life and drug use. The film received mainly positive reviews; Film Threat found it "an unbelievably candid glimpse into the contradictions of cocaine addiction", and praised Kirkham's articulate and authentic self-portrait.
He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 to talk about his addiction, and clips of his video diary were shown. On Oprah, Kirkham said he was a functional addict, and that he would smoke crack at night instead of sleeping, remaining high for about six hours, and report for work at Inside Edition two hours later. Kirkham went days without sleep during this time. Kirkham began to speak publicly about his drug use to young adults.
Involvement in Tiger King
In 2014, Kirkham received numerous requests to become the producer for a reality show featuring Joe Exotic, the operator of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. After taking the job, Kirkham moved into the G.W. Zoo and lived there until his departure in 2015. During his tenure at the zoo, Kirkham witnessed Exotic's erratic behaviour towards his animals, and recalled a time he witnessed him promising a woman he'd take care of her horse, only to immediately kill it. In March 2015, a suspected arson fire destroyed the studio at the G.W. Zoo, killing the zoo's alligators in the Steve Irwin Memorial complex, and destroying all of Kirkham's footage. Upon hearing about the fire, Kirkham dropped to his knees and cried, and left the zoo not long afterwards. Following the fire and witnessing Exotic's behaviour towards his animals, Kirkham spent six months in therapy, including a week-long stay in a psychiatric facility.
Kirkham was later interviewed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin for their Netflix documentary Tiger King. As an interviewee, Kirkham did not receive royalties from the show, but allowed Goode and Chaiklin to use footage of Exotic he owned for a few thousand dollars. Kirkham is featured prominently throughout the documentary, recounting the rise and fall of "Joe Exotic TV", a podcast-like production that Kirkham hoped to develop into a TV series, before his footage was mysteriously destroyed. Kirkham claimed to have "never experienced anything like Joe Exotic" and denied involvement in the 2015 G.W. Zoo fire. He also claimed that Travis Maldonado wasn't gay.