Since the early 1990s breakthrough of Tony Kushner’s two-part epic, Angels in America — subsequently made into a hit miniseries — Kushner has emerged as one of the country’s leading playwrights. With his cutting wit and penchant for uncomfortable opinions, Kushner has earned a Pulitzer, an Emmy, two Tony Awards and a reputation running the gamut from charming to demanding and unpredictable. His life story is portrayed in “Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner,” the new P.O.V. documentary, airing Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 9/8 pm CT on KET1.

Kushner is portrayed as resolutely upbeat, productive, at ease with himself, and tender with family and friends. Despite his relaxed demeanor, his days are a blur of disparate activities united by his drive both to “speak the truth” and to succeed as an artist.

As she demonstrated in her 1996 Oscar-winning P.O.V. film, “Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision” (about the designer of the Vietnam Memorial), director Freida Lee Mock has a natural feel for the world of artists. In “Wrestling with Angels,” she includes performances and readings from Kushner’s plays and musicals, with appearances and commentary from such theatrical lights as actresses Marcia Gay Harden, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Tonya Pinkins, directors Mike Nichols, George C. Wolfe and Oskar Eustis and writer/artist Maurice Sendak.

P.O.V. “Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner” is produced by American Film Foundation and Sanders & Mock Productions. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.