BRYAN KONIETZKO
August 24th, 2010 |
Category: Movie |
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BRYAN KONIETZKO (Series Creator / Executive Producer) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and musician. He graduated with honors from the illustration department of the Rhode Island School of Design. His friend and fellow RISD alum, Michael Dante DiMartino, helped him get his foot in the door in the TV animation industry. Konietzko worked alongside DiMartino at Film Roman Studios on the series “Family Guy,” “Mission Hill” and “King of the Hill.” In 2000 he joined Nickelodeon to work on the series “Invader Zim” as a storyboard artist. He became the art director on the second season of the show and spent time in South Korea training the overseas animation crews.
After “Zim,” Bryan was recruited by Nickelodeon’s head of development to create an original series. He once again teamed with his friend Michael DiMartino, and together they created “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” pitching the idea a mere two weeks after its conception. On top of sharing executive producer duties with Michael, Bryan worked as the art director of the award-winning series, designing the main characters and drawing from his experience as a landscape painter for their fantasy world’s epic scope. During the six-year production of “Avatar,” Bryan released three albums of instrumental electronic music under the recording name Ginormous. His fourth album, the score for a contemporary dance piece by Los Angeles’ Oni Dance, was released in the spring of 2010. Bryan is an avid landscape photographer, displaying his photos of Canada, Iceland, France and Japan on bryankonietzko.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his fiancée, Lisa, and his dog, Gunther.
“The Last Airbender” is SAM MERCER’s (Producer) seventh collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan, having previously worked together on “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “The Village,” “Lady in the Water” and The Happening. Other recent producing credits for Mercer include Sam Mendes’ “Jarhead,” Stephen Sommers’ “Van Helsing” and Susanne Bier’s “Things We Lost in the Fire,” starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro.
Mercer planted his roots in the film business as a freelance location and unit production manager on such films as “The Witches of Eastwick,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Stripes,” “Swing Shift” and “The Escape Artist.” He also served as the associate producer/unit manager for PBS’ affiliate KCET-TV in Los Angeles, where he received a Daytime Emmy® for the live presentation of the San Francisco Opera’s production of “La Gioconda.”
He then joined the Walt Disney Company as a production executive, supervising such films as “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Three Fugitives” and “Dead Poets Society.” Within a few years Mercer was upped to vice president of motion picture production for Hollywood Pictures, and responsible for such releases as “Quiz Show,” “The Joy Luck Club,” “Born Yesterday,” “Swing Kids,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “Arachnophobia.”
Mercer’s first venture into independent producing was the box office hit “Congo” (directed by Frank Marshall), that he produced alongside Kathleen Kennedy, with whom he again collaborates on “The Last Airbender.” His other credits include Peter Hyams’ “The Relic,” which he produced with Gale Anne Hurd. He was also the executive producer of Brian De Palma’s “Mission to Mars.”
Mercer is a graduate of The Groton School and Occidental College. He currently resides in Venice, California.
