Carl Zimmermann (politician)

Zimmermann attended SUNY Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education. He worked for several advertising agencies for nine years before moving to Florida in 1984. Zimmermann taught TV production at Countryside High School in Clearwater. He is known for building a nationally recognized, award-winning TV/Broadcast journalism program that he oversaw for over 30 years before retiring in January, 2018. Zimmermann was recognized six times as teacher of the year—three times as the Tampa Bay-area teacher of the year, and, in 2003 was chosen Florida journalism teacher of the year by the Florida Scholastic Press Association. The program at Countryside High School is known as UPC-TV, short for Upper Pinellas County TV, and has produced as many as 100 graduates that went on to successful careers in the television or film industry. For 15 years he took students to the Sundance Film Festival for a week and for 8 years prior to that the annual field trip was to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. Zimmermann is also an accomplished screenplay writer having won "best comedy" in a contest in L.A. for his feature screenplay, "Your Horoscope for Today", runner up in the same contest the following year for "best drama" for his serial killer mystery, "The Toe Tag Murders" which was also chosen for a live, open read at the 2018 Crime and Mystery Film Festival in Toronto. His other screenplays include, "The Reporter" and "Goose Hill Road."