WashU alum and Academy Award-nominated producer, Michael Shamberg, is coming to campus, and the Skandalaris Center is hosting him for a talk!
The topic will be all things “innovation in Hollywood.”
Limited seating available.
Open to WashU community only.
RSVP using the form here!
Michael Shamberg, BA ’66
Movie and Television Producer
Michael Shamberg has produced more than 40 films. He was twice nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award for producing Erin Brockovich and The Big Chill. He was also the executive producer for two other films nominated for Best Picture—Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained. His other film credits include Contagion, Gattaca, World Trade Center, A Fish Called Wanda, Out of Sight, and Get Shorty. He is an executive producer of the current AMC series Into the Badlands.
Shamberg arrived at Washington University in 1962, where he met his lifelong friend, writer and director Harold Ramis, BA ’66. Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English, Shamberg began his career as a police reporter in Chicago before moving to New York as a reporter for Time-Life.
In 1970, Shamberg co-founded a video collective called Raindance Corporation, which published the newsmagazine Radical Software. A year later, Shamberg penned his book Guerrilla Television about democratizing television and working against the control of the traditional broadcast networks. Shamberg then developed the concept for Top Value Television, or TVTV, along with Washington University alumnus Allen Rucker, BA ’67. TVTV covered mainstream events from an alternative viewpoint. The studio’s documentary The Lord of the Universe won the Dupont-Columbia School of Journalism Award.
In 1980, Shamberg moved to Los Angeles and began his movie career with the film Heart Beat. He formed Jersey Films, in partnership with Danny DeVito and Stacey Sher, in 1996.
In 2015, Shamberg formed MAS Production, a production company producing films, television, and digital content. He is an advisor to BuzzFeed Motion Pictures and is doing feature films from BuzzFeed content. He has many TV shows in development, including, most recently, a scripted dramatic series he is producing with the Olympic Figure Skating Champion Tara Lipinski that takes an honest look at what is needed to be an Olympic athlete.
Shamberg is the father of three children. His wife, Carla Santo Shamberg, also produced Erin Brockovich and works with him on movie projects. He has a five-year-old granddaughter and a one-year-old grandson.