20 Best Hollywood Producers    

Oprah Winfrey. Photo By INTX – Wikimedia Commons

20 Best Hollywood Producers    

While watching a movie, most people don’t think about its producers or the production aspects. The main interest is usually the actors, whose names are mostly known, and the storyline.

However, movies have producers. The producer is responsible for overseeing all steps of production. He or she acquires the rights to produce the film, makes sure that production schedules are followed, and they oversee the project from scripting to editing up until it is released.    

Producers run the show and make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to delivering their vision of the movie. A producer must be very creative, strict and above all, have people, time, and resources management skills.

Here are the 20 best Hollywood Producers. 

1. Shonda Rhimes 

Shonda Rhimes. Photo by Sarah E. – Wikimedia Commons

Shonda Lynn Rhimes is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author. She is best known for producing the television medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal.  

Rhimes has also served as the executive producer of the ABC television series Off the Map, How to Get Away with Murder, The Catch, and Station 19. She also produced Bridgerton and Inventing Anna. 

Born on 13th January 1970 in Chicago, Illinois, this lady owns the Shondaland company and is one of the best producers in Hollywood.  

2. Jerry Bruckheimer 

Jerome Leon Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He is famous for producing Bad Boys and has been active in the genres of action, drama, fantasy, and science fiction. He was born on 21st September 1943 and his parents were German Jewish immigrants.  

His best-known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, CSI: Cyber, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and the American version of The Amazing Race. He was honored with a Doctorate of Fine Arts degree (DFA) from the University of Arizona’s College of Fine Arts and he also owns an Ice Hockey team. 

His productions are award-winning 

3. Steven Spielberg   

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American director, writer, and producer of many television series and films. He was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio but he grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He moved to California where he studied film in college. 

Some of his works include films like The Adventures of Tintin, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, War Horse, Lincoln, Minority Report, Bridge of Spies, and War of the Worlds. 

Steven co-founded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks and is a kickass producer who does award-winning shows. 

4. Seth Gordon 

Seth Gordon. Photo By Dominick D – Wikimedia Commons

Seth Lewis Gordon is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and film editor. He has produced film and television shows such as The Good Doctor, Marry Me, and The Goldbergs. He directed Four Christmases, Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief, and Baywatch.   

Gordon was born on 15th July 1976 in Evanston, Illinois where he grew up.  When he was 21 years, He went to Africa to teach at a high school for six months. While in the small village of Shimanyiro in Kenya, he helped secure United Nations financing to finish construction at the school. 

He got into film by chance when he edited, using an Avid editing machine, footage that he had filmed during the construction project in Kenya.  

5. Kevin Feige 

Kevin Feige is an American film and television producer who has been the president of Marvel Studios and the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic and the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment. His movies make the most money when released and he is known as the highest-grossing producer of all time. 

Feige was born on 2nd June 1973 in Boston, Massachusetts but he grew up in New Jersey. He was hired by Marvel as a producer in 2000. He produced Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy among others. 

6. Paul Attanasio  

Paul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and film and television producer. He was born on 14th November 1959 in New York. He went to Harvard and thereafter wrote film critic pieces for the Washington Post. 

He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Quiz Show, and for Donnie Brasco. He is an executive producer and writer for the medical drama Gideon’s Crossing, as well as House. He also created Tommy and co-created Bull, which premiered in 2020 and 2016, respectively.  

7. Neal H. Moritz 

Neal Moritz. Photo By Gage Skidmore – Wikimedia Commons

Neal H. Moritz is an American film producer and founder of Original Film. He was born on 6th June 1959 in Los Angeles, California. He is Jewish and a UCLA graduate. His grandfather was also in the film industry. 

This guy has produced over 70 films and is best known for 21 and 22 Jump Street, the Fast and Furious sequels, S.W.A.T, Sonic the Hedgehog and Prison Break among others.  

8. Janet Healy 

Janet Healy is a film producer who founded the Visual Effects Society. She started at the Industrial Light & Magic before joining Walt Disney Animation Studios.  

Janet has produced many films including Shark Tale, Everyone’s Hero, all the Despicable Me(s), The Lorax, all Minions, The Secret Life of Pets 1 and 2, Sing 1 and 2, The Grinch, and others. 

Her films make a lot of money at the box office. 

9. Robert Shaye   

Robert Kenneth Shaye is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. He is the founder of New Line Cinema. He was born on 4th March 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. 

Robert has produced so many movies, among them, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and all 3 The Lord of the Rings plus many more. As a businessman, Shaye invests in other companies and he also mentors young people in the industry. 

10. Michael De Luca   

Michael De Luca. Photo By GabboT – Wikimedia Commons

Michael De Luca is an American film studio executive, film producer, and screenwriter. He was born on 13th August 1965 in Brooklyn, New York. He started as a story editor and rose through the ranks thanks to Robert Shaye, the co-founder of New Line Cinema, mentoring him.    

He is known for producing Ghost Rider, The Social Network, and Fifty Shades of Grey. Luca is the former president of production at both New Line Cinema and DreamWorks. He is now the co-chairperson and CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures Group.  

11. Avi Arad  

Avi Arad is an Israeli-American film producer who became the CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990s and soon afterward became the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, and the chairman, CEO, and founder of Marvel Studios.   

He was born on 1st August 1948 in Israel and only moved to the USA in 1970 when he was just 22 years. He did odd jobs to afford school fees till he finally made it. 

Arad has since produced a wide array of live-action, animated, and television comic book adaptations including Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, and Iron Man among others. 

12. Tina Fey  

Tina Fey. Photo By Mingle Media – Wikimedia Commons

Elizabeth Stamatina “Tina” Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She was born on 18th May 1970 in Pennsylvania, U.S. She is best known as a writer and actress, but she’s also a powerhouse producer for shows such as “30 Rock,” “Sisters,” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’.  

Fey has won many awards including nine Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, seven Writers Guild Awards, and three Producers Guild Awards.  She has also been nominated for a Grammy Award and a Tony Award.  

13. Tyler Perry 

Tyler Perry. Photo By AMFM STUDIOS – Wikimedia Commons

Tyler Perry is an American filmmaker best known for his act as Madea. He was born on 13th September 1969 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He started by writing plays before moving to films and his first movie was Diary of a Mad Black Woman. 

He has produced a lot of plays, TV shows, and movies like If Loving You Is Wrong, The Haves and the Have Nots, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Meet the Browns, the Madea movies, and others. He owns the Tyler Perry Studios, one of the largest film studios in the world. 

Learn more about Tyler Perry in these top 10 facts.

14. Kathleen Kennedy  

Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer and president of Lucasfilm. She was born on 5th June 1953 in Berkeley, California. She went to San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications and film.   

She has produced over 60 films including all Indiana Jones, all Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Mandalorian, and others. Kathleen has received many awards over the years. 

She is married to Frank Marshall, another kickass producer whom she works with. 

15. Frank Marshall 

Frank Wilton Marshall is an American film producer and director. He is known for producing The Bourne Identity and its sequels. His wife is Kathleen Kennedy and together they own a film production company known as The Kennedy/Marshall Company. 

Frank was born on 13th September 1946 in Glendale, California. He has a degree in political science. He volunteered to work in a film when he was young and that is how he joined the moviemaking industry. He produced all 3 parts of Back to the Future, Cape Fear, Ponyo, The Secret World of Arrietty, and other films and documentaries. 

Together with his wife Kathleen and Steven Spielberg, Frank is a co-founder of Amblin Entertainment, a productive and profitable production company.  

16. Mel Brooks 

Mel Brooks. Photo By Angela George – Wikimedia Commons

Mel Brooks is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He was born on 28th June 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He started as a stand-up comedian before moving to film with To Be or Not to Be being among his earliest productions. 

This guy has won the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards for outstanding work in the film industry. Brooks joined the small list of EGOT winners. 

17. Samuel Goldwyn 

“I’m willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.” – Samuel Goldwyn 

Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a film producer who headed several motion picture studios in Hollywood. His birth date is disputed but he claimed he was born on 27th August 1882. 

For years, Goldwyn built a reputation in filmmaking by making very many films and he was Hollywood’s most successful independent producer. He produced Arrowsmith, The Hurricane, Dodsworth, and Dead End, among others. 

He was famous for quotes such as “Include me out”, the one above, and other speech errors called ‘Goldwynisms’. His Son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., also became a producer plus his grandchildren are in the film industry today.  

He passed on at 91 years in his home in Los Angeles in 1974. The cause of death was heart failure.  

18. Oprah Winfrey 

Oprah Winfrey. Photo By INTX – Wikimedia Commons

Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American producer and actress best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show and she is the owner of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). She was born on 29th January 1954 in Mississippi but she grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Nashville, Tennessee. 

Oprah has produced many shows including, Queen Sugar, Greenleaf, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Love Is, and When They See Us among many more. 

She has won many awards throughout her career. Read the top 10 amazing facts about Oprah here.

19. Dana Brunetti 

Dana Brunetti is an American media executive, film producer, and entrepreneur. He was born on 11th June 1973 in Covington, Virginia. Dana started as an executive assistant to Kevin Spacey the actor and together they did several projects before he proceeded to work as a producer. 

He produced Shrink, Fanboys, The Social Network, Casino Jack, Inseparable, Safe, Captain Phillips, Masterminds, the 3 Fifty Shades (Grey, Darker and freed), and House of Cards among others. 

He is a co-founder of Cavalry Media company. 

20. Doug Liman  

Douglas Eric Liman is an American film director and producer. He is the producer of Covert Affairs and Suits, two original series on the USA Network. He was born on 24th July 1965 in New York. He is Jewish and comes from a prominent family.  

He produced I Just Want My Pants Back, OC, and was Executive producer of The Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum, Jason Bourne, and The Phantom.  

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