Biography for
Brian Grazer

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Award winning producer Brian 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 three 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 also 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 TV shows have been nominated for a total of 44 Oscars® and 92 Emmys. At the same time, his movies have generated more than $12.9 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 Lifetime Achievement Award 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 6th, 2003. ShoWest celebrated Grazer's success by honoring him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. On November 14th, 2005, Grazer was honored in Los Angeles by the Fulfillment Fund. In May 2007, Grazer was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."

In addition to A Beautiful Mind, Grazer's films include Apollo 13, for which Grazer won the Producers Guild's Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award as well as an Oscar® nomination for Best Picture of 1995; and Splash, which he co-wrote as well as produced and for which he received an Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1986.

Grazer is currently in production on Dan Brown's best selling novel Angels & Demons. He recently wrapped production on Peter Morgan's critically acclaimed play Frost / Nixon directed by Ron Howard, and the Clint Eastwood directed suspense drama Changeling starring Angelina Jolie. Both films will be released later in the year.

Other feature film credits include the Ridley Scott directed drama American Gangster, staring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; the big screen adaptation of the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code, staring Tom Hanks, and directed by Oscar®-winner Ron Howard; the tense drama The Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster; Flightplan; Cinderella Man; the Sundance 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 CBS's Shark, staring James Woods, which also premiered in Fall 2006. His additional television credits include Fox's Emmy award winning Best Comedy Arrested Development, NBC's Miss Match, WB's Felicity, ABC's SportsNight, as well as HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, for which he won the Emmy® for Outstanding Mini-Series.

Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. It was while he was executive-producing TV 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 co-chairmen.

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Trivia

Graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television (1974).

Ranked #17 in Premiere's 2003 annual Hollywood Power List. He had ranked #23 in 2002.

Optioned 'Ordeal,' the autobiogragphy of Linda Lovelace hoping to make a movie out of it. Grazer later realized that the story is too narrow and dropped the project. He went on to make 'Inside Deep Throat' later though.

Was first introduced to 'Deep Throat' through his grandmother in 1972. At 60, she was curious about the movie with all the talks about it and decided to go see it with her husband.

Was a surfer before he became a producer.

Ranked #19 on Premiere's 2006 "Power 50" list. Had ranked #20 in 2005.

2007 - Ranked #11 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

In 2007, Forbes Magazine reported his 2006 earnings to be approximately $35 million.

Nephew of TV Producer and Director Bernard L. Kowalski.

Personal Quotes

Pornography is very important and is about the physicalization of a philosophy, but I think that the birth of how trends happen or how barriers get broken down is more interesting.

"I only make movies that are interesting to me."

I probably should have a brand, but I think you can't get the best artists to work for you if you're branded. I get the trade-off, and I really would like to be more famous for my work, get more credit for my achievements. We all want more of that. But on the other hand, if you get too big - like it says in 'American Gangster' - success is your enemy.

I like learning stuff. The more information you can get about a person or a subject, the more you can pour into a potential project. I made a decision to do different things. I want to do things that have a better chance of being thought of as original. I do everything I can to disrupt my comfort zone.

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