Iaphet Elli
LOS ANGELES, CA – Producers David Hill and Reginald Hudlin today
announced 14 key members of the production team for the 88th Oscars®, which will air live on Sunday, February 28, on ABC.
This year, Glenn Weiss makes his Oscar® telecast debut as director. Weiss has directed numerous televised events, including 15 Tony Awards® shows, for which he has garnered three directing Emmys®.
Other directing
credits include the “38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors,” “Billboard
Music Awards,” “BET Awards,” “Peter Pan Live!,” “Dick Clark’s Primetime
New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” “Primetime Emmy®
Awards,” “Live from Lincoln Center,” “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks
Spectacular,” “Garth Brooks, Live from Las Vegas” and the “American
Music Awards.”
Supervising producer Michael Seligman has more
than 300 major television events to his credit and has earned 13 Emmy
nominations, including 11 for his work on Oscar telecasts. Seligman’s
other producing credits include “The American Giving Awards,”
“America Celebrates July 4th at Ford’s Theatre,” “Stand Up to Cancer”
and “Return to the Titanic…Live!”
The 88th Oscars brings three new consulting producers to the telecast: Cindy Hauser, Nicolle Yaron and Chris Pizzi.
Hauser is the screens and content producer. She will be
overseeing the creation of several on-screen visuals, including the In
Memoriam segment. For more than a decade, Hauser has worked in graphics
and visual displays as well as produced several high-profile live
events.
Her credits include “YouTube Play” at the Guggenheim Museum, “YouTube
OnStage Live from the Kennedy Center” and “Google Engage” events in
Dublin and Singapore.
Yaron makes her Oscar debut as the element producer and will be
coordinating with the Academy on social media. Her credits include “The
Voice,” for which she received an Emmy Award as a senior supervising
producer. Yaron most recently served as an executive producer on the
series “Rising Star” and “World’s Funniest.” Her other credits include
the “Primetime Emmy Awards,” “People’s Choice Awards” and the “MTV Movie
Awards.”
Pizzi, this year’s insert producer, will be working with Lori Margules,
who is the consulting producer on nomination packages. Pizzi is a
three-time Sports Emmy-winning producer for NFL, PGA and NASCAR studio
shows for FOX Sports. His credits include
“Riggle’s Picks” on “FOX NFL Sunday” and a variety of commercials for
FOX Sports. Margules’ credits include previous Oscar telecasts as well
as the “Primetime Emmy Awards,” “Golden Globe Arrivals Special,” “NAACP
Image
Awards,” “BET Awards” and “Billboard Music Awards.”
Production designer Derek McLane returns to the
Oscars for a fourth consecutive year, after earning an Emmy nomination
for his work on each of the previous telecasts and winning in 2014. His
other television credits include “The Wiz Live!,” “Peter Pan
Live!” and “The Sound of Music Live!” McLane also has designed sets for
several acclaimed Broadway productions; he received a Tony Award® for his work on the drama “33 Variations” as well as three nominations for musicals.
Fatima Robinson rejoins the production team as
show choreographer. She previously worked on the 79th and 81st Oscar
telecasts, as well as choreographed Pharrell Williams’s performance of
“Happy” for the 86th Oscars. Robinson recently served as
performance producer and choreographer for several episodes of “The
Voice.” Her other credits include such feature films as “This Is the
End,” “Public Enemies” and “Dreamgirls,” and the television events “The
Wiz Live!,” “The
Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show,” and the “BET Awards,” “American Music
Awards” and “Grammy Awards.”
Billy Kimball makes his Oscar debut this year as
head writer. He has previously written for the Governors Awards and
was the writer on the “Independent Spirit Awards” nine times. Kimball
is currently a writer and consulting producer on the HBO comedy
series “Veep.” His other writing credits include “The Late Late Show
with Craig Kilborn,” “The Simpsons” and the documentary feature “Waiting
for ‘Superman,’” which he co-wrote with Davis Guggenheim. In addition,
previously
announced Oscar host Chris Rock will be writing special material.
Byron Phillips is the Oscar telecast’s
supervising music producer. Phillips has developed and produced content
and strategic plans for television, film and music platforms. Earlier
this month, he served as the co-executive producer of the “47th NAACP
Image Awards” after producing the organization’s previous three shows.
He was the co-founder of New Nation Networks and AntHill Mob
Entertainment, and has held executive positions with BET Networks and
Hollywood Records.
Harold Wheeler returns for his third Oscar
telecast, his first as music director. An accomplished orchestrator,
composer, conductor, record producer and arranger, Wheeler has received
numerous Emmy and Tony Award nominations as well as an NAACP Theatre
Award for
lifetime achievement. His television credits include the “People’s
Choice Awards,” the “AFI’s 100 Years…” series, and 17 seasons of
“Dancing with the Stars.” Wheeler also composed music for two
Democratic National Conventions and the
opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics. On Broadway, he has
orchestrated such musicals as “Hairspray,” “The Full Monty,”
“Dreamgirls,” “The Wiz” and “Promises, Promises.”
Talent producer Taryn Hurd rejoins the Oscar
telecast team for the third consecutive year. She also has served as
talent producer on events including the past two Governors Awards
ceremonies, “Red Nose Day,” “Think It Up,” the FOX network’s
“New Year’s Eve Live,” the Breeders’ Cup telecast, “Teen Choice 2013”
and “VH1 Divas Salute the Troops.”
Lightning designer Robert Dickinson returns for
his 26th Oscar show. He has won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for
Oscar telecasts. His extensive credits include the “Kennedy Center
Honors,” “Grammy Awards,” “Primetime Emmy
Awards,” “Tony Awards,” “NAACP Image Awards” and “American Music
Awards”; Olympics ceremonies in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Athens and
Vancouver; and the specials “Peter Pan Live!” and “The Sound of Music
Live!”
The 88th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 28, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center®
in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television
Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more
than 225
countries and territories worldwide.