Alan Mruvka (born 1958 in

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 ...

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

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 (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

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,342, an increase of 61 (+1.2%) from the 2010 census count of 5,281, which in turn reflected a ...

, where he attended Dwight Morrow High School. 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 university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

and New York's

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

Career

Mruvka founded

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 ...

, 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 (Brooklyn, New York), Abraham Lincoln High School, graduating in 1966. He then attended Brooklyn College, grad ...

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 includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

of a

cable network Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

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, 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 Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. Fox is based at Fo ...

planned a launch of their own '' FX Channel'', and Mruvka sued them with the assertion that

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

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 ''Embrace of the Vampire'' is a 1995 American direct-to-video erotic horror film directed by Anne Goursaud. It stars Alyssa Milano as Charlotte, a chaste girl who is haunted by a vampire played by Martin Kemp. Plot Charlotte is a "chaste" go ...

'' (1995) starring

Alyssa Milano Alyssa Jayne Milano ( ; born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and activist. She has played Samantha Micelli in '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), Jennifer Mancini in '' Melrose Place'' (1997–1998), Phoebe Halliwell in '' Charmed'' ...

, and co-wrote and produced Showtime's '' The Legend of Gator Face'' (1996). In 1998 he produced '' Intimate Sessions'' 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 fi ...

and

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

critically acclaimed '' Digging to China'' starring

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She began acting in the 1990s, a ...

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

's '' Pacific Blue'' (1996–2000), the

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

directed '' State and Main'',

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's '' Red Letters'', 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 located in the southwest section of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming locat ...

Partial filmography

Film and television producer

* '' State and Main'' (2000) * '' Red Letters'' (2000) * '' Thunderbox'' (2000) TV series * '' Digging to China'' (1997) (producer) * '' Pacific Blue'' (1996) TV series * '' The Legend of Gator Face'' (1996) * ''

'' (1995) * ''Erotic Confessions''" (1994) TV series * ''E! Entertainment Television'' (1987) (Founder)

Writer

* '' The Legend of Gator Face'' (1996) (writer)

Actor

* '' Red Letters'' (2000) * '' Digging to China'' (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 Mass media people from the Bronx Pratt Institute alumni University of Miami School of Architecture alumni Film producers from New Jersey