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Joshua Adam Berger
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(born 1966) is an American-born British business executive and producer in the media and entertainment industry. He is the founder and Chairman of Battersea Entertainment. Previously, Berger was a senior executive at
Warner Bros. Entertainment Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
for over three decades, where he served as President & Managing Director of
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
UK, Ireland, and Spain; and President of
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
Global Franchise Development. He was also Chairman of the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
, Chairman Emeritus of
Chickenshed Theatre Company Chickenshed (also known as Chicken Shed or the Chicken Shed Theatre Company) is a British theatre company based in Southgate, London. Chickenshed's membership programme comprises four Children's theatre groups and two Youth theatre groups for you ...
, and is currently a board member of the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...
. He is a producer of the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, and executive producer on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and upcoming
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
documentary Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History. Berger was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), in the Queen's 2012 Birthday Honours List for outstanding services to the UK's creative industries.


Early life and education

Berger was born in Los Angeles, California, to artist manager Shelly Berger and talent agent Elinor Berger. His godfather is American music impresario
Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record la ...
. About his childhood, Berger has said:
“I learned a ton about creativity – by osmosis really – from hanging around the incredible artists my father and godfather worked with, people like
Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...
,
The Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...
,
Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...
,
The Jackson 5 The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...
, and
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
, among others."
He attended
Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...
between 1980 and 1984. During that time, he directed, produced, and hosted television programmes aired over Group W’s cable network. He also produced a stage production of
Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...
, which starred fellow students
Jon Turteltaub Jonathan Charles Turteltaub (born August 8, 1963) is an American film director and producer. Life and career Turteltaub was born on August 8, 1963 in New York City, one of two children born to comedy writer Saul Turteltaub (best known for his ...
and
Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...
, under the supervision of
John Ingle John Houston Ingle (May 7, 1928 – September 16, 2012) was an American actor best known for his roles as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine in the ABC soap opera '' General Hospital'' and Mr. Threehorn, the father of the main characte ...
, who was the head of the school's drama department at the time. In the summer of 1983, he worked in the mailroom at Hollywood talent agency The William Morris Agency. Berger enrolled at
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1984. In 1986, he spent a gap year working at production and distribution company
Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) ...
(bought by Warner Bros. in 1989) in Los Angeles and New York, and at
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
’s
Rete Italia Rete Italia is an Italian-language radio network which broadcast to selected capital cities in Australia. The station is associated with Il Globo Newspaper and La Fiamma newspaper. The radio network was launched in 1994. To listen to the app, ...
in Milan. While in Milan, he also worked for ad agency
Bozell Bozell is an American full-service public relations and advertising agency in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, North America. History Bozell traces its roots to the company founded in 1921 in Omaha, Nebraska by Leo Bozell and Morris Jacob ...
, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, where he recorded the voiceover for the launch of Sanpellegrino’s One O One. While at Harvard, Berger was the publicity director for the university's theatre organisation,
Hasty Pudding Theatricals The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque crossdressing musicals. The Hasty Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in the United Sta ...
, the oldest theatral organisation in the US.


Career

After graduating Harvard, Berger joined Warner Bros. in 1989 as a sales executive in the TV distribution division. He then worked in a number of leadership roles in Paris,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and London, where he settled in 1996. In London, Berger oversaw all of Warner Bros.’ TV activities, including equity investments and co-productions, for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. During this time, he sat on the boards of CanalSatellite in France, Spain, and the Nordics, and was a founding director of
e.tv e.tv (commonly referred to on-air as e) is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the sta ...
in South Africa. In 2002, Berger became Warner Bros.’ first Country Manager, for the UK and Ireland, setting the template for a management model which integrates the disparate divisions in a territory under one leader and one corporate structure. In the role, he was responsible for all Warner Bros.’ business activities in the region, including film distribution, Television distribution, home entertainment, video-games and consumer products, among others. During his tenure, Berger was instrumental in the expansion of the company's activities in the UK, in particular in the acquisition of
Leavesden Studios Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in South East England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film an ...
, and the development of
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of ''Harry Potter'' is a walk-through exhibition and studio tour in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, owned by Warner Bros. and operated by their Studio Tours division. It is located within W ...
. He oversaw over 350 theatrical releases in the UK and Ireland, including
The Hangover ''The Hangover'' is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, co-produced with Daniel Goldberg, and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It is the first installment in ''The Hangover'' trilogy. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed ...
, the Harry Potter series,
Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...
, the
Dark Knight Trilogy The fictional superhero Batman, who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, has appeared in various films since his inception. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the character first starred in two serial films in the 1940 ...
,
Gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
,
The Lego Movie ''The Lego Movie'' is a 2014 computer-animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a story by Lord, Miller, and Dan and Kevin Hageman. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, its story focu ...
,
Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.It, and Joker. Berger was also part of the effort to expand into the UK video-games sector. He worked closely with the two leading games developers and publishers
Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing ...
(on whose board he served) and
Rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...
that Warner Bros. acquired, resulting in major successes such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City,
Lego Star Wars Lego ''Star Wars'' is a Lego theme that incorporates the '' Star Wars'' saga and franchise. Originally it was only licensed from 1999 to 2008, but The Lego Group extended the license with Lucasfilm, first until 2011, then until 2016, then ag ...
,
Lego Batman Lego Batman was a theme and product range of the Lego construction toy, introduced in 2006, based on the superhero character Batman, under license from DC Comics. The sets feature vehicles, characters and scenes from the comics and films. The i ...
and
Lego Harry Potter Lego ''Harry Potter'' is a Lego theme based on the films of the ''Harry Potter'' series. It is licensed from Warner Bros. Lego models of important scenes, vehicles and characters were made for the first six films and all of the published books. ...
. In 2008, and subsequently in 2012, Berger was a member of the National Finance Committee for the Obama-Biden election campaign. In 2009, Berger added management of Spain to his responsibilities, and in this capacity he oversaw the transformation of the team into a hub for world-class Spanish-language productions, including such successful theatrical releases as Lo Imposible, Palmeras en la Nieve, and
Villaviciosa de al lado ''Villaviciosa de al lado'' is a 2016 Spanish comedy film written and directed by Nacho G. Velilla and starring a coral cast including Carmen Machi, Arturo Valls, Belén Cuesta Belén Cuesta Llamas (born 24 January 1984) is a Spanish actress. ...
. In 2013, he established the award-winning Warner Bros. Creative Talent programme to develop emerging talent from all backgrounds in the UK and Ireland, identifying a pipeline for the UK and Ireland's creative industries in film, TV, games and theatre. In 2014, Berger took responsibility for the expansion of the Harry Potter global franchise effort, leading Warner Bros.’ expanded creative partnership with
J.K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
. In the role, Berger worked on numerous initiatives including the Fantastic Beasts film series;
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a chain of themed areas at Universal Parks & Resorts based on the ''Harry Potter'' media franchise, adapting elements from the Warner Bros.' film series and original novels by J. K. Rowling. The areas wer ...
attractions at Universal Studios in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
,
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, and
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
; videogame label Portkey Games; the stage-play
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' is a play written by Jack Thorne from an original story by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne. Previews of the play began at the Palace Theatre, London, on 7 June 2016 as a two-part play, and it prem ...
; and the Harry Potter Fan Club. In October 2020, Berger announced his departure from Warner Bros. after 31 years at the company.


Producing

Berger is a producer of the Tony-award-winning Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. He is also an executive producer of the third instalment of the
Fantastic Beasts ''Fantastic Beasts'' is a film series directed by David Yates, and a spin-off prequel to the ''Harry Potter'' novel and film series. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of three fantasy films as of 2022, beginning with ...
film series, The Secrets of Dumbledore, and upcoming BBC documentary Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History. Currently Berger is producing
Guy Ritchie Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the ''Sherlock Holmes'' films starring Robert Downey Jr. Ritchie left school at age 15 and wor ...
’s upcoming film, The Interpreter, starring
Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He beg ...
.


Personal life

Berger has been a
British citizen British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
since July 2011, and is based in
Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...
, London with his partner Danna Harman. He has two children.


Boards and memberships

Berger currently serves as the non-executive Chairman of the BRIT School Trust.The school has trained over 10,000 young people in music, theatre, dance, media production, and visual arts. The school’s alumni include Adele, Loyle Carner, Tom Holland, Amy Winehouse, Cush Jumbo, and many other notable artists, and creative professionals working at leading companies including Apple, BBC, Facebook, Sky, and TikTok among many others. Previosuly, Berger served as Chairman of the British Film Institute from 2016 to 2020 having been a BFI Governor since 2011. In this role, Josh has promoted the cultural and economic value of the creative industries, and has championed the push for greater diversity in the screen industries, including the development and promotion of the BFI Diversity Standards. He is also chairman Emeritus of Chickenshed Theatre Trust; a board member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA); a Member of the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
(BAFTA) and the British Screen Forum; a Director of the
International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS) is an American nonprofit membership organization, based in New York City, composed of leading media and entertainment executives across all sectors of the television industry, from o ...
; and a life member of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
. Berger also sits on the Board of Directors of
Secret Cinema Secret Cinema is a London-based entertainment company that specialises in immersive film and television events. Founded and created in 2007 by Fabien Riggall, it began with mystery screenings at initially undisclosed venues in London, inclu ...
, which creates immersive theatre-like live experiences based on leading IP.


Honours

In 2012, Berger was appointed a
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(CBE) for his outstanding services to the UK's creative industries. In 2022, Berger was awarded an honorary doctorate from the
University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...
's School of Arts and Creative Technologies.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Josh 1966 births Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Los Angeles American expatriates in the United Kingdom British Film Institute Harvard College alumni Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden People with acquired British citizenship Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Warner Bros. people Beverly Hills High School alumni