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Joshua Adam Berger CBE (born 1966) is an American-born British business executive and producer in the media and entertainment industry. He is the founder and Chairman of Battersea Entertainment. Josh is also Chair of trustees at The BRIT School.
Previously, Berger was a senior executive at Warner Bros. Entertainment for over three decades, where he served as President & Managing Director of Warner Bros. UK, Ireland, and Spain; and President of Harry Potter Global Franchise Development. He was also Chairman of the British Film Institute, Chairman Emeritus of Chickenshed Theatre Company, and is currently a board member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
He is a producer of the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations , and executive producer on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore .
Berger was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), in the Queen's 2012 Birthday Honours List for outstanding services to the UK's creative industries.
Berger was born in Los Angeles, California, to artist manager Shelly Berger and talent agent Elinor Berger. His godfather is American music impresario Berry Gordy. [1]
About his childhood, Berger has said:
“I learned a ton about creativity – by osmosis really – from hanging around the incredible artists my father and godfather worked with, people like Diana Ross, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson 5, and Marvin Gaye, among others." [2]
He attended Beverly Hills High School between 1980 and 1984. During that time, he directed, produced, and hosted television programmes aired over Group W’s cable network. He also produced a stage production of Oklahoma!, which starred fellow students Jon Turteltaub and Nicolas Cage, under the supervision of John Ingle, who was the head of the school's drama department at the time. [3]
In the summer of 1983, he worked in the mailroom at Hollywood talent agency The William Morris Agency. [4]
Berger enrolled at Harvard College in 1984. [5] In 1986, he spent a gap year working at production and distribution company Lorimar-Telepictures (bought by Warner Bros. in 1989) in Los Angeles and New York, and at Silvio Berlusconi’s Rete Italia in Milan. While in Milan, he also worked for ad agency Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, where he recorded the voiceover for the launch of Sanpellegrino’s One O One. [6]
While at Harvard, Berger was the publicity director for the university's theatre organisation, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatral organisation in the US. [7]
After graduating from Harvard, Berger joined Warner Bros. in 1989 as a sales executive in the TV distribution division. [8] He then worked in a number of leadership roles in Paris, Madrid, and London, where he settled in 1996.
In London, Berger oversaw all of Warner Bros.’ TV activities, including equity investments and co-productions, for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. During this time, he sat on the boards of CanalSatellite in France, Spain, and the Nordics, and was a founding director of e.tv in South Africa. [7]
In 2002, Berger became Warner Bros.’ first Country Manager, for the UK and Ireland, setting the template for a management model which integrates the disparate divisions in a territory under one leader and one corporate structure. [9] In the role, he was responsible for all Warner Bros.’ business activities in the region, including film distribution, Television distribution, home entertainment, video-games and consumer products, among others.
During his tenure, Berger was instrumental in the expansion of the company's activities in the UK, in particular in the acquisition of Leavesden Studios, and the development of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. [10] [11] He oversaw over 350 theatrical releases in the UK and Ireland, including The Hangover , the Harry Potter series, Argo , The Dark Knight trilogy, Gravity , The Lego Movie , Dunkirk , It , and Joker .
Berger was also part of the effort to expand into the UK video-games sector. [12] He worked closely with the two leading games developers and publishers Traveller's Tales (on whose board he served) and Rocksteady that Warner Bros. acquired, resulting in major successes such as Batman: Arkham Asylum , Batman: Arkham City , Lego Star Wars , Lego Batman and Lego Harry Potter .
In 2008, Berger was a member of the National Finance Committee for the Obama-Biden election campaign. Berger subsequently fulfilled the same role for the 2012 campaign. [13]
In 2009, Berger added management of Spain to his responsibilities, and in this capacity he oversaw the transformation of the team into a hub for world-class Spanish-language productions, including such successful theatrical releases as Lo Imposible, Palmeras en la Nieve, and Villaviciosa de al lado. [14]
In 2013, Berger established the award-winning Warner Bros. Creative Talent programme to develop emerging talent from all backgrounds in the UK and Ireland, identifying a pipeline for the UK and Ireland's creative industries in film, TV, games and theatre. [15]
In 2014, Berger took responsibility for the expansion of the Harry Potter global franchise effort, leading Warner Bros.’ expanded creative partnership with J.K. Rowling. [16] In the role, Berger worked on numerous initiatives including the Fantastic Beasts film series; The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions at Universal Studios in Florida, Hollywood, Japan, and Beijing; videogame label Portkey Games; the stage-play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; and the Harry Potter Fan Club.
In October 2020, Berger announced his departure from Warner Bros. after 31 years at the company. [5]
Berger is a producer of the Tony award-winning Broadway and West End musical Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations . [17]
He was also an executive producer of the third instalment of the Fantastic Beasts film series, The Secrets of Dumbledore , and the BBC documentary Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History. [18] [19]
In 2022, Berger produced Guy Ritchie's The Covenant , starring Jake Gyllenhaal. [20]
Berger has been a British citizen since July 2011, and is based in Battersea, London with his partner Danna Harman. He has two children.
Berger currently serves as the non-executive Chairman of The BRIT School. [21] The school has trained over 10,000 young people in music, theatre, dance, media production, and visual arts. The school's alumni include Adele, Loyle Carner, Tom Holland, Amy Winehouse, Cush Jumbo, and many other notable artists, and creative professionals working at leading companies including Apple, BBC, Facebook, Sky, and TikTok among many others.
Previously, Berger served as Chairman of the British Film Institute from 2016 to 2020 having been a BFI Governor since 2011. [22] In this role, Josh promoted the cultural and economic value of the creative industries, and championed the push for greater diversity in the screen industries, including the development and promotion of the BFI Diversity Standards. [23]
He is also chairman emeritus of Chickenshed Theatre Trust; a former board member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA); a Member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the British Screen Forum; a Director of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. [24] [25] [26]
Berger also formerly sat on the Board of Directors of Secret Cinema, which creates immersive theatre-like live experiences based on leading IP. [27]
In 2012, Berger was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his outstanding services to the UK's creative industries. [28]
In 2022, Berger was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York's School of Arts and Creative Technologies and also appointed as an Honorary Professor of the School. [29]
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2001 guide book written by British author J. K. Rowling about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe. The original version, illustrated by the author herself, purports to be Harry Potter's copy of the textbook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first novel of the Harry Potter series. It includes several notes inside it supposedly handwritten by Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, detailing their own experiences with some of the beasts described, and including inside jokes relating to the original series.
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an 80 ha (200-acre) studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in the East of England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film and media complex owned by Warner Bros. The studios were all converted from an aircraft factory and airfield called Leavesden Aerodrome, a centre of British aircraft production during World War II. The nearest railway station is King's Langley which is a walking distance of 1.3 miles (2.1 km).
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and produced by David Heyman, from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the 1997 novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the first instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. Its story follows Harry's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he discovers that he is a famous wizard and begins his formal wizarding education.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 fantasy film directed by Alfonso Cuarón from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and the third instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively. It chronicles Harry's third year at Hogwarts and his quest to uncover the truth about his past, including the connection recently-escaped Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black has to Harry and his deceased parents.
David Yates is an English filmmaker, who has directed feature films, short films, and television productions. He is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter series and the three films of its prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. His work on the Harry Potter series brought him critical and commercial success along with accolades, such as the British Academy Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing.
Stephen Keith Kloves is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He wrote and directed the film The Fabulous Baker Boys and is mainly known for his screenplay adaptations of novels, especially for all but one of the Harry Potter films and for Wonder Boys, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
David Jonathan Heyman is a British film producer and the founder of Heyday Films. Heyman is best known as the executive producer of all eight installments of the Harry Potter film series, which are based on a series of popular fantasy novels of the same name by author J. K. Rowling. He then produced all three installments of its spin-off prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. His work makes him the second-most commercially successful producer of all time.
Lego Harry Potter is a Lego theme based on the film series of the same name and the eponymous novels by British author J. K. Rowling. It is licensed from Warner Bros. Lego models of important scenes, vehicles and characters were made for the first six films and all of the published books. The first sets appeared in 2001, to coincide with the release of the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Subsequent sets were released alongside the new films, until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The line then went dormant for three years, with sets being released in 2010 and 2011. In 2018, it was announced that more sets based on the Harry Potter franchise would be released, including new sets based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Harry Potter is a film series based on the eponymous novels by British author J. K. Rowling. The series is produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and consists of eight fantasy films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). A spin-off prequel series started with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), marking the beginning of the Wizarding World shared media franchise.
Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling.
Production of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the 2010/2011 two-part finale of the Harry Potter film series, began in 2009. Both Part 1 and Part 2 were directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves, and from the screen adaptation of the 2007 novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The picture was produced by Rowling, alongside David Heyman and David Barron. It was originally set to be released as one, but due to its long running time, Warner Bros. Pictures divided the film into two parts.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a 2018 fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. The sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), it is the second instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise. It features an ensemble cast including Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp. Set in 1927, it follows Newt Scamander and Albus Dumbledore as they attempt to take down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald while facing new threats in a more divided wizarding world.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. It is the first instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the ninth overall in the Wizarding World franchise, serving as a spin-off of and prequel to the Harry Potter film series; it is inspired by the 2001 guide book of the same name by Rowling. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a 2022 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, based on a screenplay by Rowling. It is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), the third instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the eleventh overall in the Wizarding World franchise. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Katherine Waterston, and Mads Mikkelsen. Set several years after the events of its predecessor, the film sees Albus Dumbledore tasking Newt Scamander and his allies with a mission that takes them into the heart of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald's army.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter is a walk-through exhibition and studio tour in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, owned by Warner Bros. and operated by their Studio Tours division. It is located within Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire, and houses a permanent exhibition of authentic costumes, props and sets utilised in the production of the Harry Potter films, as well as behind-the-scenes production of visual effects. The tour is contained in Soundstages J, K and R, which were specially built for the attraction, and are separate from the studio's actual production facilities.
Warner Bros. Studio Tours are a pair of public attractions owned and run by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Fantastic Beasts is a film series directed by David Yates, and a spin-off prequel to the Harry Potter novel and film series. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of three fantasy films as of 2022, beginning with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), and following with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). Following the 2001–11 Harry Potter film series, Fantastic Beasts marks the second film series in the Wizarding World shared universe media franchise.
The Wizarding World is a fantasy media franchise and shared fictional universe centred on the Harry Potter novel series by J. K. Rowling. A series of films have been in production since 2000, and in that time eleven films have been produced—eight are adaptations of the Harry Potter novels and three are part of the Fantastic Beasts series. The films are owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The series has collectively grossed over $9.6 billion at the global box office, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
Harry Potter: The Exhibition is a travelling exhibition based on the Harry Potter series of books and films, which features props, costumes, and other artefacts. The first iteration of the exhibition ran from April 2009 to March 2020. A second iteration of the exhibition is scheduled to premiere in early 2022.
Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World is a 2016 hidden object video game developed by Mediatonic and WB Games San Francisco, and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
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