Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned and nominations by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.
The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing to its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. ABC is headquartered on Riverside Drive in Burbank, California, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Team Disney – Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network maintains secondary offices at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, which houses its broadcast center and the headquarters of its news division, ABC News.
ESPN is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications (20%) through the joint venture ESPN Inc. The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen, Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan.
Donald Winfred Ohlmeyer Jr. was an American television producer and president of the NBC network's west coast division. He received notoriety for firing Norm Macdonald from Saturday Night Live in early 1998, a move that is widely believed to have been motivated by Macdonald's refusal to stop making jokes at the expense of Ohlmeyer's friend, O. J. Simpson.
FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX was originally launched by News Corporation on June 1, 1994, and later became one of the properties that was included in the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney in 2019. The network's original programming aspires to the standards of premium cable channels in regard to mature themes and content, high-quality writing, directing and acting. Sister channels FXM and FXX were launched in 1994 and 2013, respectively. FX also carries reruns of theatrical films and terrestrial-network sitcoms. Advertising-free content was available through the FX+ premium subscription service until it was shut down on August 21, 2019, after which ad free content moved to Hulu with no ads.
Jonah J. "Bud" Greenspan was an American film director, writer, and producer known for his sports documentaries.
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney after the closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio, it is the oldest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 62 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Wish (2023), and hundreds of short films.
Michael Tollin is an American film and television producer/director who served as executive producer of the Emmy award-winning The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. The series received rave reviews and set numerous ratings records, being seen by nearly 15 million viewers per episode on ESPN and many million more on Netflix around the world.
Nina Jacobson is an American film executive who, until July 2006, was president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. With Dawn Steel, Gail Berman and Sherry Lansing, she was one of the last of a handful of women to head a Hollywood film studio since the 1980s. She established her own production company called Color Force in 2007, and was the producer of The Hunger Games film series.
Mandt Bros. Productions is a Los Angeles-based production company founded by brothers Neil and Michael Mandt. The brothers are partners in the Los Angeles based creative studio and are the Producers of the Golden Globe Awards. The company was formed in 2001 and has experience of television, film, internet, immersive and mobile audiences. In addition to creating traditional content, the brothers have built and operated multiple turn-key production facilities and are in virtual and augmented reality content creation.
ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by the Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder.
ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.
30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts.
Phiona Mutesi is a Ugandan chess player. She has represented Uganda at four Women's Chess Olympiads, and is one of the first titled female players in Ugandan chess history. Mutesi is the subject of a 2012 book and a 2016 film called Queen of Katwe.
Lydia Dean Pilcher is an American film and television producer and director and founder of Cine Mosaic, a production company based in New York City.
Queen of Katwe is a 2016 American biographical sports drama film directed by Mira Nair and written by William Wheeler. Starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o, and Madina Nalwanga, the film depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a girl living in Katwe, a slum of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her victories at World Chess Olympiads.
O.J.: Made in America is a 2016 American documentary, produced and directed by Ezra Edelman for ESPN Films and their 30 for 30 series. It was released as a five-part miniseries and in theatrical format. O.J.: Made in America premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016, and was theatrically released in New York City and Los Angeles in May 2016 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It debuted on ABC on June 11, 2016, and aired on ESPN.
Connor Schell is an American producer of television and film and founder of non-fiction production studio Words + Pictures. He is the co-creator with Bill Simmons and executive producer of the 30 for 30 series for ESPN. Schell was also an executive producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary film O.J.: Made in America and the Emmy Award-winning miniseries The Last Dance.
