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Zvi Howard Rosenman, with Peter Spears, brought the idea of doing a surfing series to Carolyn Strauss at HBO. Through the years, because of his great friendship with Bruce Weber, the reknowned photographer, he met many of the leading surfers in the US. He heard so many dramatic and funny stories from them that he thought it would be a natural arena for a series on HBO. He then asked the Fletchers, whom he met through Mr. Weber, if they would be willing to come on board as Consulting Producers.
Zvi Howard Rosenman was born in Brooklyn, in New York State on February 1, 1945 and grew up in Queens. His parents, who were born in Israel, also spent a lot of time in Jerusalem, while Mr. Rosenman was growing up, where his father and sister now reside. Mr. Rosenman went to Brooklyn College where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1964, majoring in European Literature. He went on to both Hahnemann Medical School and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and took a leave of absence in order to pursue a career in motion pictures. Mr. Rosenman began his career working on Broadway for Katherine Hepburn and Sir Michael Benthall, who was directing Miss Hepburn in the Andre Previn musical of COCO, the story of Coco Chanel, in 1968.
He then joined Benton & Bowles as a producer of TV commercials. As a producer of commercials, he won many Clios for such accounts as Cool Whip, Cool 'n Creamy, Texaco's Havoline Oil, Pampers, Vick's Nyquil and Prell Shampoo.
Mr. Rosenman went to Hollywood in 1973, where he produced a TV movie for ABC under the aegis of the legendary film unit created by Barry Diller and run by Michael Eisner and Deanne Barkley. Mr. Rosenman, along with Ron Bernstein, then founded RSO Films with Robert Stigwood, where they made many MOWs for television. Among them were the first movies of John Badham (ISN'T IT SHOCKING?), Randall Kleiser (ALL TOGETHER NOW) and Joel Schumacher (VIRGINIA HILL). He also produced KILLER BEES with Gloria Swanson.
He produced TIDY ENDINGS with Harvey Fierstein and Stockard Channing for Colin Calendar at HBO, which won an Emmy and many other awards.
In features, his credits include, SPARKLE, THE MAIN EVENT with Barbra Streisand, RESURRECTION, GROSS ANATOMY, SHINING THROUGH, A STRANGER AMONG US, STRAIGHT TALK, TRUE IDENTITY, FATHER OF THE BRIDE, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, MY FIRST MISTER, NOEL and FAMILY MAN.
He also produced a series of documentaries about subjects which are very meaningful to him: COMMON THREADS: TALES FROM THE QUILT for HBO (written and directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein), which won both an Academy Award for Best Documentary and a George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Journalism. CELLULOID CLOSET was nominated for an Academy Award, won an Emmy and numerous other award and garnered a second George Foster Peabody Award for Mr. Rosenman. He also produced PARAGRAPH 175 about Hitler's persecution of Gays during the Holocaust. He then made BOND GIRLS ARE FOREVER, with Maryam D'Abo, a documentary about the James Bond women.
He headed Sandollar for seven years and then went on to run Brillstein-Grey Films for two years.
He just finished "YOU KILL ME" starring Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni & Luke Wilson opening nationwide June 22 and BREAKFAST WITH SCOT starring Tom Cavanagh & Ben Shankman to be released in the Fall of '07.
He's currently Executive Producing JOHN FROM CINCINATTI the David Milch surfing series for HBO premiering after the very last episode of THE SOPRANOS on June 11.
He will start shooting THE MONSTER OF LONGWOOD starring Al Pacino, about Napoleon's exile in St. Helena to be directed by Patrice Chereau, in March of 2008. He is also developing GRACE, to star Sandra Bullock at Fox 2000, about the author Grace Metallious who wrote PEYTON PLACE, CAT 'N MOUSE at Fox and fifteen other projects. He just sold two series to Showtime and one to Logo.
Mr. Rosenman is Co-Founder of Project Angel Food in LA, which provides Meals-on-Wheels for terminally ill AIDS patients, and has served on the Board of Directors of the AIDS Research Alliance, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, DIFFA, Youth AIDS Services, and the Advisory Board of GLAAD.
He resides in Los Angeles with Tom, his very handsome German Shepherd, inherited from his beloved deceased partner, David McGregor Aiken, and also has a very articulate, and prolix parrot: Tucker, a beautiful yellow-naped Amazon, the smartest and most amusing parrot on the planet. Butch, a beautiful and extraordinarily bright African Grey, Mr. Rosenman's very first pet, died tragically in January at the age of fifteen. Bernstein, his brilliant and peerless Boston Terrier, passed away September 13, 2005 at the age of twelve.
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