Graham King - Biography

Oscar-winning producer Graham King, has worked behind the scenes with the industry's foremost creative talents on both major motion pictures and independent features. Over the last 30 years, King has produced or executive produced more than 45 films, grossing $1.2 billion at the domestic box office, and over $2.5 billion worldwide. Also heralded by critics and film groups, his films have been nominated for 61 Academy Awards, 38 Golden Globe Awards, and 52 British Academy Film Awards.

Most recently, GK Films' Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three, including Best Picture. Argo also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Drama, and Best Director. Earlier in 2012, King produced Tim Burton's gothic supernatural thriller Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, and Helena Bonham Carter.

King concluded a diverse 2011, with Best Picture Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, on Martin Scorsese's acclaimed fantasy adventure Hugo. Hugo received 11 total Academy Award nominations, the most of any film that year. HUGO also appeared on over 200 Critics' lists of the Top 10 films of 2011. King also produced Gore Verbinski's animated comedy Rango, featuring the voice of Johnny Depp in the title role, which won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. That year, King also produced Angelina Jolie's feature directorial debut, In The Land of Blood and Honey, which received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. This marked the first time a Producer had been nominated for Best Picture Golden Globes in three different categories, Drama, Animated film and Foreign Language film, in the same year.

King previously won a Best Picture Oscar as a producer on Scorsese's 2006 crime drama The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. The film won a total of four Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

He received his first Best Picture Academy Award nomination, and won a Best Film BAFTA Award, for his producing work on Scorsese's widely praised Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Additionally, he was honored by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) with the Golden Laurel Award as Producer of the Year.

King has a number of projects forthcoming, including the sci-fi actioner World War Z starring Brad Pitt, coming this Summer. Also being developed under the GK Films banner is the highly anticipated franchise reboot of Tomb Raider, first made popular starring Angelina Jolie, a big screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Jersey Boys, the untitled Freddie Mercury story starring Sacha Baron Cohen, an original screenplay The Battle Of Britain, being written by Robert Towne, and the outrageous comedy Little White Corvette starring Emma Stone.

King's earlier producing credits include the romantic thriller The Tourist, pairing Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie; Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town, starring Affleck and Jeremy Renner; Martin Campbell's thriller Edge Of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson; the historical drama The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt; and the drama Blood Diamond, starring DiCaprio. In addition, he served as a co-executive producer on Scorsese's Oscar-nominated epic drama Gangs of New York, starring DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz.

King was previously the President and CEO of Initial Entertainment Group, which he founded in 1995. During King's tenure at IEG, he served as an executive producer on such films as Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-winning ensemble drama Traffic; Michael Mann's biographical drama Ali, starring Will Smith in the title role; and The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, produced by and starring Jodie Foster. King also went on to executive produce the television miniseries Traffic, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Miniseries.

A native of the United Kingdom, King moved to the United States in 1982 and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2009.