John Lesher (born May 12, 1966) is an American film producer, best known for winning the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

for the 2014 film '' Birdman''.

Life and career

John Lesher was born on May 12, 1966, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1988 before starting his career as an agent at the Bauer-Benedek Agency. Later, Lesher moved to the

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. U ...

(UTA), where he became a partner. After 15 years at UTA Lesher left UTA for Endeavor, where his clients included

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Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with '' Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and received ...

, Alejandro Iñárritu, and

Judd Apatow Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy and drama films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films ' ...

. In 2005, he was made head of

Paramount Vantage Paramount Vantage (also known as Paramount Classics) was a film distribution label of Paramount Pictures (which, in turn, has Paramount Global as its parent company), charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, general ...

, a new brand derived from Paramount Classics that produced and distributed arthouse-oriented titles. The company produced such Oscar-winning pictures as Inarritu's Babel (2006), the Coen Brothers'

No Country for Old Men ''No Country for Old Men'' is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, th ...

(2007), and Paul Thomas Anderson's

There Will Be Blood ''There Will Be Blood'' is a 2007 American period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on the 1927 novel '' Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a silver miner turned oilm ...

(2007). The success of these films led to Lesher's appointment in 2008 as President of Paramount Pictures, where he oversaw several major features, including J.J. Abrams' reboot of the ''Star Trek'' (2008) franchise and David Fincher's ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'' (2008). "Star Trek" was his only blockbuster. Other titles released by Paramount during his tenure, like ''Iron Man'' (2008), were distribution titles made at other companies, while other projects, like the Mike Myers comedy

Love Guru Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

(2008) and Imagine That (2009) were failures. Lesher was dismissed as Paramount president in the summer of 2009. He formed his own production company, Le Grisbi, which released several box office hits between 2012 and 2014. Among their most popular efforts was ''Birdman'', which was directed by Inarritu and earned Lesher an Oscar for Best Picture in 2015. Lesher, along with other producers won the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures at the 26th annual Producers Guild Awards.

Filmography

References

External links

* Living people Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Film producers from Pennsylvania 1966 births Harvard University alumni People from Pittsburgh {{US-film-producer-stub