Casey Silver

Casey Silver’s been around the block in Hollywood—seriously, the guy has left fingerprints all over some of the biggest movies out there. He started out scribbling scripts, hustled his way up from assisting Adrian Lyne on Flashdance (yeah, the legwarmers one), and then rolled right into Simpson-Bruckheimer, where he helped cook up Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun. Not exactly small potatoes. When he landed at Universal Pictures, things really went into overdrive. Silver didn’t just sit in some corner office—he ran the show, overseeing everything from production to marketing, even wrangling international partnerships and handling home video back when people actually bought DVDs. The dude had his hands in everything: animation, visual effects, family flicks, you name it. Under his watch, Universal cranked out a wild lineup—think Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13, Field of Dreams, Casino, Do The Right Thing, and, yeah, Gladiator. Basically, if you rattled off a list of ‘90s and early 2000s classics, chances are Silver was somewhere in the credits. Before Universal, Silver did his thing at TriStar Pictures, climbing up to Senior VP of Production. After leaving the studio grind, he started his own company and pumped out movies like The Highwaymen and Hidalgo, plus dipped into TV with Godless, which snagged a pile of Emmy noms (and a few wins). Silver’s teamed up a bunch with Steven Soderbergh too, working on projects like No Sudden Move, Mosaic, and the star-studded Black Bag. If you’re talking Hollywood heavy hitters, Silver’s right up there.