Barry Mendel

An Academy Award®-nominated producer whose first film, Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson, won an Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director (Anderson) and Best Supporting Actor (Bill Murray). That film was followed by The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which was nominated for six Academy Awards®, including Best Picture. Subsequently, Mendel produced its follow-up, Unbreakable, then went back to work with Anderson on The Royal Tenenbaums, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay for writers Anderson and Owen Wilson. This collaboration continued on The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, which was followed by Joss Whedon's critically acclaimed feature-film directorial debut, Serenity.

Mendel conceived and spent eight years developing and producing Munich, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for five Academy Awards®, including Mendel's second nomination for Best Picture in 2005. He then went back to work with Shyamalan, producing the 2008 box-office hit The Happening.

In 2009, Mendel began his collaboration with writer/director/producer Judd Apatow, producing Apatow's acclaimed Funny People. In 2010, Mendel produced Michael Lander's feature-film directorial debut, Peacock, which starred Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page, and Drew Barrymore's feature-film directorial debut, the roller-derby movie Whip It, which also starred Page and featured Kristen Wiig. Whip It earned a Rotten Tomatoes honor as one of the best reviewed films of the year.

In 2011, Mendel joined Apatow in producing Bridesmaids, which received Academy Award® nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and Best Original Screenplay (Annie Mumolo and Wiig), Mendel's fourth film to receive nominations. Bridesmaids also won the People's Choice and Critics' Choice Movie awards for Best Comedy Movie, and was named one of AFI's Movies of the Year, which marked Mendel's third film to receive this honor. In 2012, Mendel produced This Is 40 with Apatow, which starred Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.

The following summer, he filmed God Help the Girl, the directorial debut of Belle and Sebastian lead singer Stuart Murdoch. The film won a World Dramatic Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected as the opening film for the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Universal Pictures