Brian Grazer


Brian Thomas Grazer is an American film and television producer. He founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 with Ron Howard. The films they produced have grossed over $15 billion. Grazer was personally nominated for four Academy Awards for Splash, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and Frost/Nixon. His films and TV series have been nominated for 47 Academy Awards and 217 Emmy Awards.
In 2002, Grazer won an Academy Award for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind. In 2007, he was named one of Times "100 Most Influential People in the World".
𝕏 BrianGrazer

Early life and education

Grazer was born in Los Angeles, California, to Arlene Becker Grazer and criminal defense attorney Thomas Grazer. He is the older brother of Nora Beth Grazer and actor/director Gavin Grazer. He was raised in Sherman Oaks and Northridge, in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley.
Grazer's father was Catholic and his mother is Jewish. His parents divorced when he was in high school. Grazer said "My best buddy, the most important person in my growing up, was my little 4-foot-10 Jewish grandmother, and she'd say, 'In order to get it, you got to do it. No one's going to get it for you, Brian.'"
While in school, Grazer struggled with dyslexia. Grazer got through school by reading other students' papers and arguing his grades with his teachers.
His nephew is actor Jack Dylan Grazer.
Grazer won a scholarship to the University of Southern California as a psychology major. He graduated from USC's School of Cinema-Television in 1974. He then attended USC Law School for one year, but quit in 1975 to pursue a life in Hollywood.

Career

Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. While executive-producing television pilots at Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s, he met current long-time friend and business collaborator Ron Howard.
He produced his first feature film, Night Shift, in 1982, directed by Howard. Grazer and Howard collaborated again for Splash in 1984, which Grazer produced and co-wrote. Splash earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1984. Grazer went on to become an independent producer, collaborating with Tri-Star Pictures to set up plans for a film to star Richard Pryor, and had a continuing relationship with The Walt Disney Studios, and has plans to develop projects for Paramount Pictures.
In November 1985, Grazer and Howard co-founded Imagine Entertainment, which became one of Hollywood's most prolific and successful production companies. Over the years, Grazer's films and television shows have been nominated for a total of 43 Academy Awards, and 198 Emmys. At the same time, his movies have generated over $15 billion in worldwide theatrical, music, and video grosses.
Grazer's early film successes include Parenthood and Backdraft. He produced Apollo 13, for which he won the Producers Guild of America's Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture of 1995.
In 1998, he earned two major honors: he was given his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and made a cameo appearance on the animated series The Simpsons.
In 2001, Grazer won an Academy Award for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind, which also took home Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 2002, Grazer's 8 Mile was released. It proved not only to be a huge box office hit, but also the first film with a rap song to win a Academy Award for Best Original Song, for Eminem's "Lose Yourself".
Grazer also produced the film adaptation of Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon. Frost/Nixon was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Grazer's productions span over a quarter of a century, and almost the full spectrum of movie genres. His comedies include Boomerang, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Intolerable Cruelty and The Spy Who Dumped Me. He has also produced many dramatic thrillers including Inside Man, The Da Vinci Code, American Gangster, Changeling, Angels & Demons, Robin Hood, and Cowboys & Aliens. His recently released films include J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood-directed biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tower Heist, starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, and Restless, directed by Gus Van Sant.
Grazer's Imagine Entertainment's television series include Sports Night, Felicity, Arrested Development, 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Lie to Me, Empire, Genius: Einstein, Genius: Picasso, and Wu-Tang: An American Saga.
Grazer's recent productions includes Rebuilding Paradise, Dads, the 2017 Grammy awarding winning Best Music Film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, American Made, Rush, directed by Ron Howard, and starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl, and Made in America.
Grazer produced Get on Up, a biopic of the legendary "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, and In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, about the American whaleship the Essex.
In 2015, Grazer published his book A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, a #1 NY Times Bestseller, in which he discusses conversations with interesting people, many of whom inspired his work. In 2019, Grazer released his second book Face to Face: The Art of Human Connection.
In January 2024, it was announced that Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, will be turned into a theatrical movie with Grazer, Kiedis and Guy Oseary producing the film for Universal Pictures.

Personal life

Grazer has been married three times: Corki Corman, and novelist and screenwriter Gigi Levangie. In April 2014, Grazer became engaged to Veronica Smiley, chief marketing officer of SBE, a hotel management company. They married on February 20, 2016.
Grazer currently resides in Santa Monica, California. He also has a home in Hawaii on Sunset Beach, on the Banzai Pipeline on O'ahu's North Shore.
He is a keen user of jump ropes.
In June 2025, The New York Times reported on Grazer's appearance in a documentary series called Art of the Surge. In the show, Grazer says that he voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which Trump won. Grazer says that he opted for Trump because “I could feel and see Biden’s deterioration and the lack of direction in the Democratic Party at that time.” The Times also notes that Grazer produced Hillbilly Elegy, the movie based on the memoir of Vice President J.D. Vance.

Filmography

Film

ProducerNight Shift Splash Real Genius Spies Like Us Armed and Dangerous Like Father Like Son Parenthood Kindergarten Cop My Girl Far and Away Housesitter Boomerang For Love or Money My Girl 2 Greedy The Paper The Cowboy Way Apollo 13 Sgt. Bilko Fear The Nutty Professor The Chamber Ransom Liar Liar Inventing the Abbotts Mercury Rising Psycho EDtv Life Bowfinger Nutty Professor II: The Klumps How the Grinch Stole Christmas A Beautiful Mind Undercover Brother Blue Crush 8 Mile Intolerable Cruelty The Cat in the Hat The Missing Friday Night Lights Cinderella Man Flightplan Fun with Dick and Jane Inside Man The Da Vinci Code American Gangster Changeling Frost/Nixon Angels & Demons Robin Hood The Dilemma Restless Cowboys & Aliens Tower Heist J. Edgar Rush Get On Up The Good Lie In the Heart of the Sea Pelé: Birth of a Legend Lowriders Inferno American Made The Spy Who Dumped Me Pavarotti Dads Rebuilding Paradise Breakthrough: Virus Fighters Hillbilly Elegy Tick, Tick... Boom! Thirteen Lives We Feed People Candy Cane Lane Jim Henson Idea Man Music by John Williams After the Hunt Whalefall Spaceballs 2
Executive producerCry-Baby The Doors Closet Land Backdraft CB4 Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey! Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle Rock the Kasbah Cop and a Half: New Recruit Backdraft 2 Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Curious George: Royal Monkey Breakthrough: Virus Fighters Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel Julia Frida Music by John Williams Pets Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything
Story writerSplash Armed and Dangerous Housesitter
;Music department
YearFilmRoleNotes
1995Apollo 13Executive music producerUncredited

;Thanks
YearFilmNotes
2015The Haunting of Pearson PlaceInspired by

Television

Executive producer
YearTitleNotes
1985−86Shadow Chasers
1987−88Ohara
1988Smart Guys
1988PoisonTV movie
1988MuttsTV movie
1997Hiller and Diller
1998−2000Sports Night
1998−2002Felicity
1999Mulholland Dr.TV pilot
1999−2001The PJs
2000ThirtyTV movie
2000Wonderland
2000Rat BastardTV movie
2001The Beast
2001Silicon FolliesTV movie
2001−1024
2002B.S.TV movie
2003The SnobsTV movie
2003The BreakTV movie
2003Miss Match
2003−19Arrested Development
2004The Big House
2005Queen BTV movie
2005Fertile GroundTV movie
2005−06The Inside
2006BeyondTV pilot
200724: Day Six - Debrief
2007Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner OfficeTV movie
2006−08Shark
2006−11Friday Night Lights
2006−15Curious George
200824: RedemptionTV movie
2009Maggie HillTV movie
2009−11Lie to Me
2010−12Parenthood
2011Friends with Benefits
2011The Playboy Club
2012The Great Escape
2012Susan 313TV movie
2013How to Live with Your Parents
(For the Rest of Your Life)
2014Those Who Kill
2014Gang Related
201424: Live Another Day
2015The Bastard Executioner
2015WTF AmericaTV movie
2015Problem ChildTV pilot
2015Nerd HerdTV movie
2015The Clan of the Cave BearTV pilot
2015−17Breakthrough
2015−19Empire
2016Chance
2016−1724: Legacy
2016−18Mars
2017Shots Fired
2017−18Genius
2019Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10TV short
2019–21Why Women Kill
2019Wu-Tang: An American Saga
202068 Whiskey
2020Filthy Rich
2021Swagger
2021Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol
2021The Ms. Pat Show
2021Genius: Aretha
2022Under the Banner of Heaven
2022−25The Tiny Chef Show
2023The Super Models
2023The Slumber PartyTV movie
2023−24Bossy Bear
2024The Truth About Jim
2024I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders

Producer
YearTitleNotes
1978Zuma BeachTV movie
1978Thou Shalt Not Commit AdulteryTV movie
1988Poison
1998From the Earth to the Moon
1999Student AffairsTV movie
2005The WIN AwardsTV special
2006Treasure HuntersCo-producer
2006Misconceptions
2007Entourage
201284th Academy AwardsTV special;
Co-producer

;As an actor
YearTitleRoleNotes
1998The SimpsonsHimselfVoice role
2007EntourageHimselfUncredited
2013Arrested DevelopmentHimself
2017This Is UsHimself
2024Everybody's in LAHimselfUncredited

;As writer
YearTitleNotes
1985-86Shadow ChasersCo-created with Kenneth Johnson
Story with Johnson for episode "Pilot"

;Thanks
YearTitleNotes
2002The Clint Howard Variety ShowSpecial thanks

Additional awards