This surfer-turned-producer has earned a reputation as an influential creative executive with a strong, commercial story sense and a sharp eye for emerging talent. Grazer has been credited with having launched or boosted the careers of Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan and John Candy. He started out in TV production in the late 1970s working for Edgar J. Scherick Associates, earning his first producer credits on the 1978 NBC telefilms "Zuma Beach" and "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery". Grazer next struck out on his own, forming Kenneth Johnson/Brian Grazer Productions to make "Shadow Chasers" (ABC, 1985-86), a short-lived "Ghostbusters"-style film.

After meeting Ron Howard while executive producing TV pilots for Paramount Pictures, Grazer found much greater success upon segueing to features, starting out by producing actor-turned-director's first two comedies, "Night Shift" (1982) and "Splash" (1984). The former introduced Michael Keaton to the world while latter gave the Disney Studio its biggest live-action hit since "Mary Poppins" (1964) and Grazer his first screen story credit (as well as an Oscar nomination for original screenplay ). He went on to expand his film comedy resume by producing "Real Genius" (1985), a Martha Coolidge-directed teen comedy starring a young Val Kilmer, and the larger scale Chevy Chase-Dan Aykroyd outing, "Spies Like Us" (also 1985), helmed by John Landis. Grazer subsequently joined forces with Ron Howard to form the successful independent production company Imagine Films Entertainment in the mid-80s.

Since its inception, Imagine has tended to specialize in high profile comedy films built around the particular talents of certain stars, for example, the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle "Kindergarten Cop" (1990). Grazer has fostered a nice relationship with Eddie Murphy that has seen the comic offer some of his best screen work, whether it be as "The Nutty Professor" (1996, or its 2000 sequel "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps"), the animated TV series "The PJs" (Fox, 1999-2000; The WB, 2000-2001) the underrated "Bowfinger" (1999). Similarly, Steve Martin has enjoyed a collaboration dating back to "Housesitter" (1992) and encompassing "Sgt. Bilko" (1995) and "Bowfinger". Jim Carrey had a blockbuster opening with "Liar Liar", playing a lawyer forced to tell the truth thanks to his son's wish, and buried under Oscar-winning makeup effects as the green monster in the live-action version of "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000).

It is his association with Ron Howard, however, that has remained constant. Since 1989, Grazer has produced all of Howard's directorial efforts, including the family-oriented comedy "Parenthood" (1989), the sweeping period epic "Far and Away" (1992, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) and the Oscar-nominated "Apollo 13" (1995). Following their success with "The Grinch", the pair reunited for "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), the biopic of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr, who battled back from schizophrenia to win a Nobel Prize. Despite a series of controversies ranging from how much of the film deviated from the subject's life, "A Beautiful Mind" was a commercial and critical success, earning eight Academy Award nominations and taking home four Oscars including Best Picture.

A slew of film projects followed in 2002, as Grazer took on production of "8 Mile" starring rap superstar Eminem, produced the spoof "Undercover Brother" with Eddie Griffith and Denise Richards, revisited "Apollo 13" with an IMAX edition and recalled his wave-riding roots by producing the summer surf girl flick "Blue Crush." In 2003 Grazer also planned the mammoth production of "The Cat in the Hat," the Dr. Suess live-action remake starring Mike Myers, and a big-screen retelling of "The Alamo." In the midst of all this, Grazer's groundbreaking, critically-hailed television series "24" was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for Best Drama Series—the first of several nominations the spy thriller received over the course of its run. Meanwhile, Grazer put his producing stamp on partner Ron Howard’s disappointing western, “The Missing” (2003), and the Coen brother’s equally mediocre romantic comedy, “Intolerable Cruelty” (2003). On the small screen, Grazer had a couple misfires: “Miss Match” (NBC, 2003-2004), a sitcom about a divorce attorney (Alicia Silverstone) juggling her job and her hobby as matchmaker for her friends, and “The Big House” (ABC, 2003-2004), about a wealthy Malibu man who goes back to his blue-collar beginnings when his father loses all his money.

Grazer then produced “Arrested Development” (Fox, 2003-2006), a highly-touted and oft-troubled sitcom about a wealthy but estranged Orange County family who bond together in order to survive after their father (Jeffrey Tambor) is convicted of fraud and sent to prison, effectively freezing the family’s considerable assets. With its stinging humor and cast of oddball misfits, “Arrested Development” became a critical darling while earning a small, but loyal audience. But the highly dysfunctional Bluth family proved to be too much for mainstream audiences to bear—or even understand. After a few seasons of constant questioning of whether or not the show would survive, “Arrested Development” was finally canceled due to poor ratings. Glazer, however, still had plenty of other projects on his plate: He produced the well-received high school football drama, “Friday Night Lights” (2004), “Inside Deep Throat” (2005), a documentary that probed the porn phenomenon from the early 1970s, and “Fun with Dick and Jane” (2005), a disappointing remake of the George Segal-Jane Fonda comedy starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni.

After two more series—“Quintuplets” (Fox, 2004-2005) and “The Inside” (2004-2005)—came and went, Grazer focused almost exclusively on features, including “Flightplan” (2005), an action thriller starring Jodie Foster as a frantic, but fiercely protective mother determined to find her supposedly vanished daughter (Marlene Lawston). Though not an overwhelming success, “Flightplan” did manage to take in a respectable $86 million at the box office. Grazer teamed once again with Ron Howard, Russell Crowe and scribe Akiva Goldsman for “Cinderella Man” (2005), the heartwarming underdog tale of famed prize fighter James Braddock (Crowe). Once a promising contender, Braddock’s life and career were upended by a stinging defeat to lightweight champion Tommy Loughran. As the Great Depression forced him to work the docks to support his wife and family, Braddock was determined to get back into the ring even though he was considered to be too old and out-of-shape to fight. The rags-to-riches tale earned plenty of critical kudos and award nominations, particularly for supporting actor Paul Giamatti.

In 2006, Grazer got off to a great start with his next producing effort, “Inside Man” (2006), Spike Lee’s impressive crime thriller a brilliant and cool-headed thief (Clive Owen) who remains one step ahead of a smooth-talking hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) in an effort to pull off the perfect heist. Then Grazer and Howard made one of the most controversial and anticipated movies to have come along in decades, “The Da Vinci Code” (2006), adapted from Dan Brown’s mega-blockbuster book. A famed symbologist (Tom Hanks) is called to the Louvre where the murder of a curator has left behind a trail of mysterious symbols and clues leading to a secret society that has spent the past 2000 years guarding a secret that could destroy the very foundations of society if it were revealed. Even before its release—highly anticipated to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters—the Catholic church urged its faithful to boycott the film because of its depiction of members of Opus Dei—a group of lay people and secular priests committed to spreading The Word. The Church wanted filmmakers to put a disclaimer before the movie stating that it was fiction, not fact—a demand Howard and Grazer rightly refused.

Meanwhile, Grazer was set to push forth a one-hour television version of “Friday Night Lights” (NBC, 2006- ), which was ordered to series by network in early May 2006. He also awaited the release of “How to Eat Fried Worms” (2006), a coming-of-age tale about an 11-year-old boy’s first day at school, adapted from Thomas Rockwell’s classic children’s novel. Grazer then went into production on “American Gangster” (lensed 2006), a real-life telling of drug kingpin-turned-informant Frank Lucas and his efforts to aide lawman Richie Roberts in bringing down the crooked cops and foreign nationals running the rampant heroin trade.