Colin Needham (born 26 January 1967) is an English computer scientist who founded the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

(IMDb). He was its

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

from its creation in 1990 until 2025, when he stepped down and instead took a role as its executive chairman.

Early life

Needham was born on 26 January 1967 in Denton, Lancashire. He attended

Audenshaw School Audenshaw School is an 11–16 single-sex education, all-boys secondary school in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, England. Originally, the school was known as Audenshaw Grammar School when established, and it opened to boys on 29th July 1932 with ...

and

Clarendon Sixth Form College Clarendon Sixth Form College is a sixth-form college on Camp Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, England, in the metropolitan borough of Tameside. In October 2015, the college relocated to a new building in Ashton town centre, from the previous site o ...

Hyde, Cheshire Hyde is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. The built-up area as defined by the Office for Nati ...

, and graduated from the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

with a

BSc (Hons) A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1988.

Career

Needham started the

(IMDb) in 1990 while working as an engineer at

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

(HP) in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. The site evolved from what was initially his personal film database which became an online bulletin board made from simple records, kept on a succession of early computers and contributed to by several people, all of whom Needham outlasted. By 1996, with the success of IMDb's first film-related

advertising campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

(for ''

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

''), Needham had quit HP to work on IMDb fully as a paid employee. In 1998, IMDb was acquired by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. In 1999, Needham won two

Webby Awards 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 IMDb. In 2017, Needham removed message boards from IMDb, stating that they "are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide". In 2025, he stepped down as the CEO of IMDb and handed over to Nikki Santoro, then shifted to the role of executive chairman.

Personal life

Needham married Karen Gaskin in 1989. They live in

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton has la ...

with their twin daughters.

Notes

References

External links

*
Col Needham
interview – The Open Mind, 21 February 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Needham, Colin British Internet celebrities Businesspeople from Manchester Amazon (company) people 1967 births Living people People from Denton, Greater Manchester People from South Gloucestershire District Alumni of the University of Leeds