Bio
Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and prolific filmmakers. From the critically acclaimed Oscar-winning dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 to the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash, he has created some of Hollywood’s most memorable films and series.
Howard’s critically acclaimed film A Beautiful Mind earned him an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture, and also won for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. Howard has also been honored by numerous organizations and in March 2013, Howard was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. In 2015, Howard was honored with a second star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making him one of the select few to have been recognized with two stars. In 2023, Apollo 13 was chosen for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, a prestigious collection of films that are selected for cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.
Howard’s most recent film is Jim Henson Idea Man, a definitive portrait of Jim Henson’s life, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival this year. His next highly anticipated project is Eden, a survival thriller based on the 1930s real-life unsolved murders in the Galapagos Islands, starring Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney. Howard is also set to direct a documentary on renowned photographer Richard Avedon as part of a slate of projects co-financed by Imagine Documentaries and FIFTH SEASON.
Howard has produced a number of award-winning productions including Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut tick, tick…BOOM!, the Emmy-winning series Arrested Development (for which he also narrated), the award-winning anthology series Genius, the series Under The Banner of Heaven from Dustin Lance Black, the documentaries Lucy and Desi, Julia, and Light & Magic, the docu series about George Lucas’ ground-breaking special effects house Industrial Light and Magic, to name a few.
Past films include Thirteen Lives, about the global efforts in the rescue of twelve boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, the Emmy-nominated documentary feature We Feed People profiling the humanitarian work of renowned chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen, Hillbilly Elegy, Rebuilding Paradise, the Grammy-winning Best Music Film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rush, The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon, How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Backdraft. Howard is also the co-author of the 2021 New York Times bestseller The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, a memoir written with his brother about growing up in Hollywood.
Howard is also the co-founder of Impact, a content accelerator whose mission is to discover, cultivate, nurture and connect creative storytellers around the world through its innovative talent identification and collaboration system. To date, Impact has built a community of over 75,000 writers across 140+ countries. Recently, Impact merged with Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Crew to form Impact Crew, an effort that aims to promote diversity and inclusion in hiring for creative careers.
Howard made his directorial debut in 1977 with the comedy Grand Theft Auto. He began his career in film as an actor, first appearing in The Journey and The Music Man. He later starred as Opie on the long-running television series The Andy Griffith Show and as Richie Cunningham on the popular series Happy Days, both Nielsen rated #1 series. Howard later starred in American Graffiti directed by George Lucas and in John Wayne’s last film, The Shootist.
Howard met his longtime friend and business partner Brian Grazer in the early 1980s and embarked on what is now one of the longest running partnerships in Hollywood. Their collaboration began with the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash, and in 1986 the two founded Imagine Entertainment, which they continue to run together as chairmen. Over the years, Imagine Entertainment has amassed a slew of prestigious awards, including 276 Emmy nominations, with 57 wins. They have also been selected for 47 Oscar nominations and won 10 Oscars, along with 72 Golden Globe nominations and 11 Golden Globe wins. The films produced by Imagine Entertainment have grossed over 13.5 billion dollars, cementing their place as one of the most flourishing production companies in the entertainment industry.