Inside the Career That Made $15 Billion at the Box Office | Brian Grazer, Film & TV Producer

2026-08-03

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Before Brian Grazer became one of Hollywood's most powerful producers — 43 Academy Award nominations, 320 Emmy nominations, more than $15 billion at the box office — he was a dyslexic kid in the San Fernando Valley getting straight F's, thought of as the boy who couldn't read. Then his grandmother, Sonja Schwartz, told him he was a genius with a gift for gab, and that not knowing an answer didn't make him dumb. It just made him more interested.In this unguarded conversation, the producer behind A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13

Before Brian Grazer became one of Hollywood's most powerful producers — 43 Academy Award nominations, 320 Emmy nominations, more than $15 billion at the box office — he was a dyslexic kid in the San Fernando Valley getting straight F's, thought of as the boy who couldn't read. Then his grandmother, Sonja Schwartz, told him he was a genius with a gift for gab, and that not knowing an answer didn't make him dumb. It just made him more interested.

In this unguarded conversation, the producer behind A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Splash, 8 Mile, Friday Night Lights, 24, and Empire sits down with David Begnaud to talk about the woman who believed in him first. He describes turning an empty office at Warner Brothers into his own enterprise, cold-calling the twenty biggest filmmakers in the business with a single promise — he'd never ask them for anything — and getting stopped at the door by Lew Wasserman, who handed him a pencil and a legal pad and told him to come back with something of value. He started writing Splash that year.

He also talks about the father who shook off his hand as a child and the father he chose to become instead.

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Chapters ☀️
Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: The Grandmother Who Said You're a Genius
00:02:01 Straight F's and Deep Shame: The Dyslexic Kid Who Couldn't Read
00:06:28 The Loveless Father: When Dad Shook Off His Touch
00:10:22 Curiosity Conversations: 40 Years of Meeting the Masters
00:18:18 The Warner Brothers Con: Building an Empire from a Law Clerk Job
00:21:42 Grandma Takes Him to the Bosses: Meeting Power at Hollywood Park
00:26:59 The Liar Story: When a Mentor Called Out the Truth Problem
00:37:41 Incorrect: The Coach Who Cut Him and Crushed His Soul
00:54:37 The Teacher Who Hit Him with a Board
00:47:33 The Oscar Moment: Loser, and Jim Lovell's Grip
00:50:39 Deep Throat and Don Rickles: What Grandma Taught Him About Vegas
01:04:50 Riley's Bio: I Am Nice and I Am Caring
01:10:13 What He'd Say to Grandma Sonia: How Much I Love Her

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways. Different paths — same question.

David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Vivian Tu

Executive Producer: David Begnaud, Olivier Delfosse, Justin McGoldrick

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Kylee Anderson, Maxim Trofimenko, Gracie Pekrul

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital & David & Luana Co.

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