Andrew B. Heyward (born February 19, 1949) is the former Chairman and CEO of

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

, an animation production company. He is currently CEO of Genius Brands International.

Early life

Heyward was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, New York, the son of Sylvia (née Block) and Louis M. "Deke" Heyward, who was vice president of development at leading entertainment companies such as Four Star International and Barry & Enright Productions, as well as senior vice president for leading cartoon company,

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...

Professional life

Andy Heyward's upbringing was robust with access to the entertainment elite, including his first start as an assistant for legendary animator Joe Barbera of

on '' Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics''. In 1986, Heyward took the lead of DIC Enterprises after he and other investors performed a buyout of majority shares owned by Radio-Television Luxembourg (now RTL Group, owned by Bertelsmann). He subsequently bought the remaining shares owned by Jean Chalopin, founder of the French company DIC Audiovisuel. Heyward eventually sold a majority interest in DIC to

Capital Cities/ABC Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...

in 1993, forming a

Limited Partnership A limited partnership (LP) is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership except that while a general partnership must have at least two general partners (GPs), a limited partnership must have at least one GP and at least one limited ...

company called DIC Entertainment L.P. CC/ABC would then be purchased by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

in 1996. In 2000, with two venture capital firms, Heyward re-purchased DIC Entertainment. On June 20, 2008, Heyward announced that he was selling DIC Entertainment to Cookie Jar Group. In 2009, he founded A Squared Entertainment (A2) with his wife, Amy. In 2013, the company merged with

Genius Brands Genius Brands International (GBI) is an entertainment company headed by Andy Heyward. The company was formed from the merger of Genius Brands International and A Squared Entertainment. History 2014–2015 Genius Brands International (GBI) was ...

to form Genius Brands International, with Heyward serving as CEO.

References

External links

*
Genius Brands International
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heyward, Andy 1949 births American male television writers American television writers Hanna-Barbera people Living people Screenwriters from New York (state) Television producers from New York City American voice directors