Brian Grazer Producer
Academy Award®-winning producerBrian Grazer 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 131 Emmys. At the same time, his movies have generated more than $13.5 billion in worldwide theatrical, music and video grosses. Reflecting this combination of commercial and artistic achievement, the Producers Guild of America honored Grazer with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in 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 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 also produced the film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s critically acclaimed play Frost/Nixon,directed by Ron 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.
Grazer recently produced J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and is in development on The Dark Tower, a film and television series based on Stephen King’s novels. He is awaiting the release of Restless, a coming-of-age story, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper.
Grazer’s most recent film is Cowboys & Aliens, starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. His other feature films include The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James; the hit drama Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett; the adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel“Angels & Demons,” starring Tom Hanks and directed by Oscar® winner Ron Howard, which opened in May 2009; the drama Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie; the Ridley Scott-directed drama American Gangster, starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; the big-screen adaptation of the international best seller “The Da Vinci Code”; the tense drama Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel 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 FOX’s hit Golden Globe- and Emmy award-winning Best Drama series 24, NBC’s Peabody Award-winning series Friday Night Lights and FOX’s Lie to Me, starring Tim Roth. He is also an executive producer on NBC’s breakout hit Parenthood,based on his 1989 film. His additional television credits include FOX’s Emmy Award-winning Best Comedy Arrested Development,CBS’s 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 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 Ron 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.