Paula Wagner
Paula Wagner
Paula Wagner
Paula Wagner
Paula Wagner, a former co-owner of United Artists Entertainment,
LLC (along with Tom Cruise and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.), also
served as the company's Chief Executive Officer, overseeing all its
day-to-day operations. She and Cruise, her longtime business
partner, took charge of United Artists in November 2006, with the
aim of reviving the venerable studio founded nearly 90 years ago by
movie legends Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and
D.W. Griffith. Since then, the reborn studio has completed
production of its first film, the political thriller "Lions for
Lambs," directed by Robert Redford and co-starring Redford, Meryl
Streep, and Cruise, and has launched its second production, the
World War II thriller Valkyrie, directed by Bryan Singer
and starring Cruise.
Wagner came to United Artists after 15 years at Creative Artists
Agency as one of the entertainment industry's top talent agents and
13 years as co-owner of Cruise/Wagner Productions, which she and
Cruise founded in 1993. While at C/W, she and Cruise produced a
wide range of pictures that earned numerous awards, widespread
critical praise, and global box office success. The first film
released under the C/W banner was the international hit
Mission: Impossible, the success of which brought the
company the 1997 Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in
Theatrical Motion Pictures. Cruise/Wagner Productions went on to
produce such critically acclaimed films as Without Limits,
Shattered Glass, Narc, The Others, Vanilla Sky, Elizabethtown, The
Last Samurai and Ask the Dust, not to mention such
international blockbusters as Steven Spielberg's War of the
Worlds (which Wagner executive produced) and Mission:
Impossible II and Mission: Impossible III, which
Wagner produced. In all, in the decade that separated Mission:
Impossible and Mission: Impossible III, films
produced by Cruise/Wagner Productions earned more than $3 billion
in worldwide box office receipts.
In 2001, Wagner was honored by Premiere magazine with the Women in
Hollywood Icon Award. The following year she was featured in
Bravo's "Women on Top," a documentary profiling exceptional women
in entertainment. In 2004, she and Cruise were honored by Daily
Variety as "Billion-Dollar Producers." That same year Wagner and
Cruise received the UCLA/Producers Guild of America Vision Award.
In 2006, Wagner was the recipient of the Excellence in Producing
Award at Sarasota Film Festival and served as the President of the
First-Time Directors Jury at the Venice Film Festival.
Wagner serves on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon
University, where she received her Bachelors in Fine Arts. She is a
member of the American Cinematheque's Board of Directors and the
Executive Committee of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television. Wagner also serves on the board of Interlochen Center
for the Arts and the National Film Preservation Foundation through
the Library of Congress. In 2006, Wagner marked her fourth year as
co-chair of the Hollywood Film Festival.
A Business Speaker with an Insider's Look at the Entertainment Industry
Few business speakers working today have as much insight into the entertainment industry as Paula Wagner.
Women's groups seeking an inspirational or motivational speaker on the
subjects relating to the modern woman's achievement and fulfillment
in the workplace are always interested in hiring Paula Wagner
because of the heights she has scaled and the accolades she has
received in the male-dominated world of Hollywood.
To book Paula Wagner as a keynote speaker, contact CAA Speakers today.
