Brian Grazer

Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer, p.g.a. has been making movies and television programs for more than 25 years. As both a writer and producer, he has been personally nominated for four Academy Awards®, and in 2002, he won the Best Picture Oscar® for A Beautiful Mind. In addition to winning three other Academy Awards®, A Beautiful Mind won four Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture—Drama) and earned Grazer the first annual Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign.

Over the years, Grazer's films and television shows have been nominated for a total of 43 Oscars® and 149 Primetime Emmys (2014). At the same time, his movies have generated more than $13.7 billion in worldwide theatrical, music and video grosses. Reflecting this combination of commercial and artistic achievement, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) honored Grazer with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures in 2001.

His accomplishments have also been recognized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which, in 1998, added Grazer to the short list of producers with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On March 6, 2003, ShoWest celebrated Grazer's success by honoring him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In May 2007, Grazer was chosen by Time magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."

In January 2009, Grazer and his creative partner, Ron Howard, were honored by the PGA with the Milestone Award. In November 2009, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts honored them with the Big Apple Award, and in May 2010, they were honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center with its Humanitarian Award. In February 2011, Grazer was the Motion Picture Sound Editors Filmmaker Award recipient. In 2012, Grazer received the Innovation and Inspiration Award from the Alfred Mann Foundation for his charitable humanitarian efforts. In 2013, Grazer was the recipient of the Alzheimer's Association's Abe Burrows Entertainment Award and the PromaxBDA Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to A Beautiful Mind, Grazer's films include Apollo 13, for which Grazer won the PGA's Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures and received an Oscar® nomination for Best Picture in 1995, and Splash, which he co-wrote as well as produced and for which he received an Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1984.

Grazer produced the film adaptation of Peter Morgan's critically acclaimed play Frost/Nixon, directed by Howard. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, and was also nominated for the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the PGA.

In 2012, Grazer produced the 84th Academy Awards® hosted by Billy Crystal.
Grazer's films include The Good Lie, a drama based on the true story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, starring Reese Witherspoon, and Howard's In the Heart of the Sea, about of the true story of the Essex disaster that was the foundation of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."

Grazer's more recent films include the music documentary Made in America featuring Jay Z; Rush, about the Formula One rivalry between Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth); Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio; Tower Heist, which starred Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy; Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens, which starred Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford; The Dilemma, which starred Vince Vaughn and Kevin James; Ridley Scott's drama Robin Hood, which starred Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett; Oscar® winner Howard's feature adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novels "Angels & Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code," which starred Tom Hanks; Eastwood's drama Changeling, which starred Angelina Jolie; Scott's drama American Gangster, which starred Crowe and Denzel Washington; Spike Lee's tense drama The Inside Man, which starred Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster; Flightplan; Cinderella Man; the Sundance Film Festival-acclaimed documentary Inside Deep Throat; Friday Night Lights; 8 Mile; Blue Crush; Intolerable Cruelty; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; The Nutty Professor; Liar Liar; Ransom; My Girl; Backdraft; Kindergarten Cop; Parenthood; Clean and Sober; and Spies Like Us.

Grazer's television productions include NBC's Parenthood, based on his 1989 film, FOX's Gang Related, 24: Live Another Day and FOX's Empire. His additional television credits include NBC's Peabody Award-winning series Friday Night Lights; FOX's Primetime Emmy Award-winning Outstanding Comedy Series Arrested Development; FOX's hit Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy award-winning series 24; ABC's How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life); Netflix's Arrested Development; FOX's Lie to Me; CBS' Shark; NBC's Miss Match; The WB's Felicity; ABC's Sports Night; and HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, for which he won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries.

Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. It was while he was executive producing television pilots for Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s that Grazer first met his longtime friend and business partner, Howard. Their collaboration began in 1985 with the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash, and in 1986, the two founded Imagine Entertainment, which they continue to run together as chairmen.

Universal Pictures