Alan Mruvka (born 1958 in

Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

) is an American entertainment and media entrepreneur, film producer and screenwriter. He created and co-founded ''Movietime Channel'', which later became ''

E! Entertainment E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUnivers ...

'' television. He is the

Founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

, President and CEO of 'The Alan Mruvka Company', and is a New Jersey

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

Background

Mruvka was born to Polish refugees in

in 1957. He grew up in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the i ...

and

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, whose population at the 2010 United States census was 5,281.Dwight Morrow High School Dwight Morrow High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Englewood, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Englewood Public School District. The school also serves students from Engle ...

. He studied architecture and structural engineering at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

and New York's

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

Career

Mruvka founded

E! Entertainment Television E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUnivers ...

, formerly known as Movietime, and was chairman and co-founder of The Ministry of Film and Filmtown Entertainment, and is now President/ CEO of TwelveOne Entertainment, a movie and television production company.

Entertainment, film, and television

Mruvka created and founded ''Movietime Channel Inc'' now known as "E! Entertainment Television" with partner

Larry Namer Larry Namer is an entertainment and media entrepreneur of ''Movies USA Magazine''. Biography Namer attended Abraham Lincoln High School, graduating in 1966. He then attended Brooklyn College, graduating in 1971 with a degree in economics. Af ...

in 1984. While with ''E!'', Mruvka oversaw production of over 20,000 hours of programming while guiding the channel to the fastest growth of a

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

of a

cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, o ...

in television history. He also founded ''Movies USA'' magazine, as a national movie magazine distributed in movie theaters. Also in the 90's, Mruvka co-founded Ministry of Film (MOF) with

Marilyn Vance Marilyn Vance is an American costume designer and filmmaker. Background Born Marilyn Kaye, she was once married to Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Marilyn became a costume designer in Hollywood. She is the mother of film producer Ladd ...

, however that union ended in a lawsuit dispute. In 1992, shortly after leaving '' E!'', he created ''FX TV'' (Fitness and Exercise Television Inc.) as a cable channel to be launched in 1994, but sold FX to 20th Century Fox before it was launched.

Fox Television The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and ...

planned a launch of their own ''

FX Channel FX, F-X, F/X, Fx, fx, or ''variation'', may refer to: People Arts, entertainment, and media Effects Fx, effects, as in: * Effects unit, Guitar effects * Sound effects * Special effects Music Groups and labels * f(x) (group), South Korean girl g ...

'', and Mruvka sued them with the assertion that Fox had prior knowledge of his use of the initials. Mruvka then sold FX to Fox for an undisclosed amount thus allowing Fox to use the name. While under the Ministry of Film shingle, Mruvka produced ''Erotic Confessions'' for Cinemax (1994–1997), '' Embrace of the Vampire'' (1995) starring

Alyssa Milano Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress. She has played Samantha Micelli in '' Who's the Boss?'', Jennifer Mancini in '' Melrose Place'', Phoebe Halliwell in ''Charmed'', Billie Cunningham in '' My Name Is Earl'', Sa ...

, and co-wrote and produced Showtime's ''

The Legend of Gator Face ''The Legend of Gator Face'' is a 1996 Canadian comedy horror feature film written by David Covell, Alan Mruvka, and Sahara Riley, and directed by Vic Sarin. The film first aired as a Showtime Original Pictures for Kids in May 1996. In 1997 it w ...

'' (1996). In 1998 he produced ''

Intimate Sessions Intimate may refer to: * Intimate examination, a physical examination for medical purposes that includes examination of the breasts, genitalia, or rectum of a patient * Intimate ion pair, the interactions between a cation, anion and surrounding sol ...

'' for Cinemax (1998), and the winner of the

Chicago International Children's Film Festival In 1983, Facets Multi-Media founded the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), the first competitive festival of films for children in the U.S. The impetus for the Festival came from a need to introduce new, culturally diverse fil ...

and

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

critically acclaimed ''

Digging to China ''Digging to China'' is a 1997 American drama film that marked the cinematic directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood. The screenplay by Karen Janszen focuses on the friendship forged between a pre-teen gi ...

'' starring

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work i ...

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madi ...

's '' Pacific Blue'' (1996–2000), the

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

directed ''

State and Main ''State and Main'' is a 2000 comedy film written and directed by David Mamet and starring William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin, Julia Stiles, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Patti LuPone, Clark Gregg, and Cha ...

'', HBO's ''

Red Letters A page from a red-letter edition King James Bible Red letter edition bibles are those in which the words considered as being spoken by Jesus Christ are printed in red ink. History The inspiration for rubricating the words of Jesus comes from Lu ...

'', and the weekly boxing series '' Thunderbox'' (2000).

Internet

In 2000, Mruvka founded the internet entertainment portal ''celebstreet.com''. As his first internet venture, the April 5 launch was christened by actress Pamela Lee Anderson at the Spring Internet world trade show at the

Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...

Partial filmography

Film and television producer

* ''

'' (2000) * ''

'' (2000) * '' Thunderbox'' (2000) TV series * ''

'' (1997) (producer) * '' Pacific Blue'' (1996) TV series * ''

'' (1996) * '' Embrace of the Vampire'' (1995) * ''Erotic Confessions''" (1994) TV series * ''E! Entertainment Television'' (1987) (Founder)

Writer

* ''

'' (1996) (writer)

Actor

* ''

'' (2000) * ''

'' (1997)

References

External links

* *
The Alan Mruvka Company official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mruvka, Alan Film producers from New York (state) American people of Polish descent Living people 1958 births Dwight Morrow High School alumni People from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey People from Flushing, Queens People from the Bronx Pratt Institute alumni University of Miami School of Architecture alumni Film producers from New Jersey