Gavin Polone is an American film and television producer. He began producing films in the late 1990s and television in the 2000s. He has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards, of which six were for "Outstanding Comedy Series" for Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. His production company is Pariah.[1]
Background
Polone graduated from University of California, Berkeley in three years. He earned a realtor's license and applied to work for the Central Intelligence Agency, but was not accepted.[2] In 1985, he began work as an assistant at International Creative Management.[3] He eventually became a literary agent at ICM.[4] In 1989, ICM suspected that Polone planned to defect and fired him, though Polone says ICM was wrong about its suspicions. He joined Bauer-Benedek Agency, and the agency eventually merged with Leading Artists Agency to form United Talent Agency.[3] Polone eventually became a partner at UTA.[4] He was disappointed in how the agency was run and threatened to leave.[3] In April 1996, UTA fired Polone and alleged that he sexually harassed a female agent. Polone hired Peter Ostroff to sue UTA in a breach of contract lawsuit, and before the lawsuit was filed, UTA gave Polone a $6 million severance package and made a public admission that "'there were insufficient grounds' to fire him." UTA sued Polone a year later for reneging on the severance contract, and another settlement took place.[5] After departing from UTA, Polone launched his own management and production company and managed clients in both film and television. He eventually decided to become a film and television producer,[4] and he dropped all of his clients except for Conan O'Brien. In 2007 and beyond, Polone became a pundit who appeared in media to comment on the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Tiger Woods's infidelity scandal and fallout, and Michael Moore's association with Occupy Wall Street. He also writes an online column for New York Magazine.[3]
Filmography
He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.