Michael Mandt (born October 25, 1971) is an American

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

Early life

Born in Ohio, Mandt graduated from

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

in the

Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, and moved north to

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. The ...

where he began his television career as a Production Assistant at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

working on SportsCenter and other studio shows.

Television and film

In 2001, Michael and his brother

Neil Mandt Neil Mandt is an American producer oThe Golden Globe Awards director and technology entrepreneur. He started becoming involved in film and TV in the 1990s. He has written, directed, produced, and acted in many different films and TV shows. Tele ...

started Mandt Bros. Productions. That same year, they produced Reel Classics Uncut for ESPN. The following year, they produced ESPN's first

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

: ''

Beg, Borrow & Deal ''Beg, Borrow & Deal'' is a reality television show that aired on ESPN with a first season hosted by Rich Eisen in 2002 and a second season hosted by Summer Sanders in 2003. Premise The show, which was originally called "Beg, Borrow and B.S.", fe ...

''. In 2003, the brothers created the show ''

Jim Rome is Burning James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, '' The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by Westwood One. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on rad ...

'' starring popular sports radio host

Jim Rome James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, '' The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by Westwood One. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on r ...

. In 2004, they created the series ''My Crazy Life'' for

E! Entertainment Television E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable television network. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel focuses primarily on pop culture, celebrity based reality shows and movie ...

and in 2007 they created ''

Destination Truth ''Destination Truth'' is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on June 6, 2007, on Syfy. Produced by Mandt Bros. Productions and Ping Pong Productions, the program follows paranormal researcher Josh Gates around the ...

'' for the Sci Fi Channel. Michael has also produced and or directed segments of the

ESPY The ESPY Awards (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, and often referred to as the ESPYs) is an annual American awards show produced by ESPN since 1993, recognizing individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-r ...

awards since 2005. Michael Mandt appeared in the film '' Hijacking Hollywood''. More recently, he produced the

indie film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in ...

Last Stop for Paul ''Last Stop for Paul'' is a 2006 independent film by Neil Mandt. It chronicles the journey of two men to the Full Moon Party in Thailand. The film is notable in that there was no crew and no casting. Plot Two buddies set out on a low-budget road ...

'' in 2006. In January 2012, Neil and his brother entered into a partnership agreement with RUFF China, the organization in who holds a permit to put on MMA events as a legal sport in the country of China. Together with his brother, Neil is working with RUFF to establish the world's biggest MMA league in the world, based in China. In the Spring of 2012 Neil and his brother Michael saw a long term movie project finally pay off when

Jon Hamm Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama series '' Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and tw ...

, star of

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...

, attached himself to star in the movie The Million Dollar Arm. The feature film was based on the real-life story of two young men from India who were plucked from obscurity to be signed into the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball organization. The Mandt brothers found the story and were instrumental in putting the original deal together that led to the movie deal with Hamm and Disney. They are attached as Co-Producers on the film, along with Mark Ciardi, Gordon Grey and Joe Roth. As ESPN executive producer, Mandt said that

Caitlyn Jenner Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner, October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American media personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete. Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yell ...

was given the 2015

Arthur Ashe Courage Award The Arthur Ashe Courage Award (sometimes called the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage or Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award) is presented as part of the ESPY Awards. It is named for the American tennis player Arthur Ashe. Although it is a ...

because "she has shown the courage to embrace a truth that had been hidden for years, and to embark on a journey that may not only give comfort to those facing similar circumstances, but can also help to educate people on the challenges that the transgender community faces."

Internet

In 2007, Neil and Michael launched FantasySportsGirl.com, a site which provides daily video content for

fantasy sports A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete ba ...

fans. The duo were also nominated for a

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for their work on ''Last Stop for Paul''.

References

External links

* of Mandt Bros. Productions * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandt, Michael 1971 births Living people American television producers Fordham University alumni