Brad Grey
| Brad Grey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 29, 1957 New York City, New York |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jill Gutterson (1982-2007; divorced; 3 children: Sam, Max, Emily) Cassandra Huysentruyt (2011–present) |
Brad Alan Grey (born December 29, 1957) is an American television and film producer. He co-founded the influential Brillstein-Grey Entertainment agency, and afterwards became the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, a position he has held since 2005. Grey is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management. Under Grey’s leadership, Paramount finished No. 1 in global market share in 2011 and No. 2 domestically in 2008, 2009 and 2010 despite releasing significantly fewer films than its competitors. He also has produced eight out of Paramount's 10 top-grossing pictures of all time since he succeeded Sherry Lansing in 2005.
Grey was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx, the youngest child of a garment district salesman. He majored in business and communications at the University at Buffalo. While attending the university, he became a gofer for a young Harvey Weinstein, who was then a concert promoter. The first show Grey produced (at age 20) was a concert by Frank Sinatra at Buffalo's War Memorial Auditorium in 1978. Grey traveled to Manhattan on weekends to look for young comics at The Improv. Grey brought comedian Bob Saget to New York, thus making Saget his first client.
Grey's career took off in 1984, when he met talent manager Bernie Brillstein in San Francisco, California at a television convention. Having convinced Brillstein that he could deliver fresh talent, he was taken on as a partner and the Bernie Brillstein Company was re-christened Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. Grey began producing for television in 1986 with the Showtime hit, It's Garry Shandling's Show. In the late 1990s, Shandling sued Grey for breach of duties and related claims. Shandling complained that his TV show lost its best writers and producers when Brad Grey got them deals to do other projects, and that Grey commissioned these other deals, while Shandling did not benefit from them. Grey denied the allegations and countersued, saying the comedian breached his contract on The Larry Sanders Show by failing to produce some episodes and indiscriminately dismissing writers, among other actions. Both suits were settled avoiding a trial. Shandling did testify about Grey during the 2008 trial of private investigator Anthony Pellicano who worked on Grey’s defense team. The value of the settlement to Shandling was later disputed by attorneys as being either $4 million or $10 million.
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