LAWRENCE BENDER

Lawrence Bender's films have been honored with nineteen Academy Award nominations, including two for Best Picture. His most recent nominations came for the 1998 film "Good Will Hunting," which received a total of nine nominations, and won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. The film also received four Golden Globe nominations, winning the award for Best Screenplay. Bender was nominated for a Producers Guild Award and a Golden Satellite Award for the same film, and was honored with a Vision Award that year. He had previously been Oscar-nominated for Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," for which he was again nominated for a Producers Guild Award. In addition to its seven Academy Award nominations, including a win for Best Screenplay, "Pulp Fiction" also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Film, and won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

"Pulp Fiction" marked Bender's second collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, with whom he has had a long association. The two first teamed on the 1992 film "Reservoir Dogs," which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. The film also won Italy's Raymond Chandler Award and was voted Best Picture by the Australian Film Critics. Bender also produced "Four Rooms," an anthology of four separate stories, individually written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Alex Rockwell and Allison Anders; and executive produced "From Dusk Til Dawn," written by Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez. In 1998, Bender produced Tarantino's "Jackie Brown," for which Robert Forster earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Bender holds the distinction of being the only producer to have two films in simultaneous competition at the Berlin Film Festival: "Good Will Hunting" and "Jackie Brown." He is currently in production on their next collaboration, Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" which stars Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu and Daryl Hannah,

Bender's other producing credits include "The Mexican," starring Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini, "Anna and the King," starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat, which was nominated for two Academy Awards for costume and production design, "A Price Above Rubies," "White Man's Burden," "Killing Zoe" and "Fresh," which was in the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

His upcoming films include "Knockaround Guys," starring John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper, written and co-directed by David Levien and Brian Koppleman which will be released this Fall, and "Stark Raving Mad" starring Sean William Scott. He is currently in production on "The Great Raid," for director John Dahl which stars Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes and James Franco. Bender is also in pre-production on "Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing" which will begin shooting later this year.

The year 2000 marked Bender's first foray into television, and he has set up series and longform projects at all six broadcast networks as well as HBO, Showtime, USA, Sci-Fi Channel, and TNT. He was an Executive Producer on "Anatomy of a Hate Crime," about the murder of Matthew Shepard, which aired on MTV and for which he was nominated for a GLAAD Award, as well as an all new "Nancy Drew" movie for ABC.

In addition to his feature film and television work, Bender has enjoyed success in producing commercials and music videos with his production company, A Band Apart. The company has produced commercial spots for such directors as Tim Burton, John Woo and McG. A Band Apart Music Videos represents top directors, including Nigel Dick, McG, and Wayne Isham. In 2001, the company shot 75 commercials and music videos and garnered 13 MTV Music Video Award nominations.

Bender began his career as a dancer and actor. He toured with the Ralph Robertson Ballet Company and, upon moving to New York, won a scholarship to Louis Falco's Dance Academy. After sustaining an injury, he segued to acting. In 1985, he started work as a production assistant at the American Film Institute. Three years later, he made his producing debut on the horror film "The Intruder," on which he shared story credit with writer/director Scott Spiegel.