He has worked in both capacities on varied series including The Practice, Crossing Jordan, Kevin Hill, The Unit and The Good Wife.
Along with the rest of the production team Kessler was nominated for the Emmy Award for outstanding drama series for his work on the fifth season.
Kessler wrote the first-season episodes "Believers" and "Blood Relatives" and left the crew at the end of the first season.
Kessler returned to television in 2004 as a supervising producer and writer for legal drama Kevin Hill.
In 2006 Kessler worked as a supervising producer and writer on the second season of HBO historical drama Rome.
He was promoted to executive producer and wrote the episodes "Sex Trade", "Misled and Misguided" (from a story by himself and Pete Blaber) and the series finale "Unknown Soldier".
[2] Kessler was joined by Ted Humphrey who had worked as a supervising producer and writer on the fourth season of The Unit.
[4] Kessler and the rest of the writing staff for the first season were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for best new series.
He wrote the episodes "We Live In Two Different Worlds," "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" (with consulting producer David Marshall Grant), and "Why Don't You Love Me."