Academy 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 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" 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 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 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 6, 2003, ShoWest celebrated Grazer's success by honoring him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. On November 14, 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. Grazer and his creative partner Ron Howard were honored by the Producers Guild of America with the Milestone Award in January 2009, and again by New York University's Tisch School of Cinematic Arts with the Big Apple Award in November 2009.
In addition to "A Beautiful Mind," Grazer's films include "Apollo 13," for which he 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 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's most recent film "Robin Hood" was released in May 2010. The drama teamed him up again with director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe, and stars Cate Blanchett and Max Von Sydow. The film adaption of Dan Brown's best-selling novel "Angels & Demons," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard was released in May 2009.
Grazer is currently in production on the "Untitled Ron Howard Project," staring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, and on "Cowboys & Aliens," directed by Jon Favreau and starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. He is also in post-production on "Restless," a coming-of-age story directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper.
Grazer's feature film credits include the drama "Changeling," directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie; the Ridley Scott-directed drama "American Gangster," staring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; the big-screen adaptation of the international best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," starring 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 the hit Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning drama series "24"; NBC's Peabody Award-winning series "Friday Night Lights"; and "Lie To Me." Grazer's additional television credits include the Emmy Award-winning comedy series "Arrested Development," "Shark," "Miss Match," "Felicity," "SportsNight," 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 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 chairmen.
