Barry Mendel Biography

Barry Mendel is an American film producer.

The first film he produced was Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson which won IFP Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director Anderson and Best Supporting Actor Bill Murray. This was followed by The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Subsequently, he produced its follow-up, Unbreakable, then went back to work with Wes Anderson on the The Royal Tenenbaums, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writers Anderson and Owen Wilson. This collaboration continued on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which was followed by Joss Whedon's directorial debut, the critically acclaimed Serenity.

Mendel conceived and spent eight years putting together Munich, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

He then went back to work with Shyamalan, producing the box-office hit The Happening.

In 2008, Mendel produced Judd Apatow's Funny People starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman and also Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, the critically acclaimed Whip It starring Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig and Barrymore and Peacock directed by Michael Lander featuring Cillian Murphy, Page and Susan Sarandon.

In 2011, Mendel joined Judd Apatow in producing the comedy hit Bridesmaids, which received two Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay (for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo) and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture (Comedy or Musical). He then reteamed with Apatow and Clayton Townsend to produce This Is 40, written and directed by Apatow, then God Help the Girl, the Glasgow musical film written and directed by Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, which won a Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

He then produced Trainwreck, the 2015 hit comedy directed by Judd Apatow and written by and starring Amy Schumer, which received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture (Comedy or Musical). Mendel is next re-teaming with Apatow to produce The Big Sick, written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani which Michael Showalter is directing.

Mendel began his career in film as a literary agent representing novelist/screenwriter Calder Willingham, best known as author of Eternal Fire and screenwriter of The Graduate and five collaborations with Stanley Kubrick, including Paths of Glory. Mendel wrote the biographical entry on Willingham in The Literary Encyclopedia.

He lives with his wife in Pasadena, California.

Credits

• Rushmore (1998) (producer)
• The Sixth Sense (1999) (producer)
• Unbreakable (2000) (producer)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) (producer)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) (producer)
• Munich (2005) (producer)
• Serenity (2005) (producer)
• The Happening (2008) (producer)
• Whip it (2009) (producer)
• Funny People (2009) (producer)
• Peacock (2010) (producer)
• Bridesmaids (2011) (producer)
• This Is 40 (2012) (producer)
• God Help the Girl (2014) (producer)
• Trainwreck (2015) (producer)
• The Big Sick (2017) (producer)