Ivan Reitman

Graduated from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. Canada, B.Mus 1969.

Founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario Canada. Student films include: "Freak Film", and "Orientation" which was distributed in Canada by 20th Century Fox as a short opening for a Dustin Hoffman vehicle. Reitman was arrested with Dan Goldberg for producing a "Columbus of Sex" at McMaster in 1970. The film was based on the Victorian novel "My Secret Life". During the trial, the men who went on to form Northern Lights Entertainment, were offered $175,000 by MGM to make a feature to be called "Foxy Ladies". They were the first Canadians convicted under Canada's decency laws, despite widespread critical acclaim and support from the arts community. They were fined $300.00 and put on a year's probation.

Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised Jewish film actor, producer, and director. His son, Jason Reitman (born in 1977) is also a film director.

Ivan Reitman, as a producer and director, has created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and has worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman has produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which introduced John Belushi to American filmgoers, and the family features Beethoven (1992) and Beethoven's 2nd (1993).

His directing credits include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave (1993), which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, Junior (1994) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson.

In 1979 and again in 1989, for the films National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Twins (1988), Reitman was honored with the People's Choice Award.

In 1983, was nominated for two Broadway Tony Awards for "Merlin:" as Best Director (Musical) and as one of the co-producers of the Best Musical nominee.

In 1984, Reitman was honored as Director of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners and the next year received a Special Achievement Award at the Canadian Genie awards.

His television credits include the Emmy-nominated children's show The Real Ghostbusters (1986) and the Saturday morning animated series Beethoven (1994) for CBS.

With Twins (1988), Reitman created an entirely new comedic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and forged a personal and professional relationship that continued with Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994). Acclaimed dramatic actors such as Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver, and Emma Thompson have also revealed untapped comic talents under Reitman's direction.

In November of 1994, Reitman became the third director honored by Variety magazine in a special Billion Dollar Director issue. Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia and fled with his family to Canada at the age of four. He attended Canada's McMaster University, where he produced and directed several television shorts.

Reitman also produced the HBO telefilm The Late Shift (1996), based on Bill Carter's non-fiction book about the late-night television wars which received seven Emmy nominations.

Other recent producing endeavors include Commandments (1997), starring Aidan Quinn and Courteney Cox, Private Parts (1997), starring Howard Stern, as well as the animation/ live action film Space Jam (1996), starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters.

He followed with a live television show, Greed: The Series (1999), with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer. "Spellbound," which Reitman produced for the live stage, evolved into the Broadway hit "The Magic Show," starring Doug Henning. He continued producing for the stage with the Off-Broadway hit "The National Lampoon Show," and returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical "Merlin," earning a Tony nomination for directing. Reitman currently heads The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock.

Was originally going to direct Pink Panther (2006), but chose not to, staying on as producer of the film.

He and Jason Reitman are one of only two father/son producing teams to be nominated for an Best Picture Oscar (for Up in the Air (2009) in 2010). The other is Mario Cecchi Gori and Vittorio Cecchi Gori for Il Postino (1994).