David T. Friendly
American film producer
title: "David T. Friendly" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1956-births", "living-people", "film-producers-from-new-york-(state)", "medill-school-of-journalism-alumni"] description: "American film producer" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_T._Friendly" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American film producer ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| image | David T. Friendly at Queen of the South at ATX.jpg |
| caption | Friendly at the 2016 ATX Television Festival presentation for Queen of the South |
| name | David T. Friendly |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | New York, U.S. |
| years_active | 1987–present |
| occupation | film producer |
| awards | Independent Spirit Award for Best Film |
| 2007 Little Miss Sunshine | |
| spouse | Priscilla Nedd-Friendly |
| alma_mater | Northwestern University (BA) |
| :: |
| image = David T. Friendly at Queen of the South at ATX.jpg | caption = Friendly at the 2016 ATX Television Festival presentation for Queen of the South | name = David T. Friendly | birth_date = | birth_place = New York, U.S. | years_active = 1987–present | occupation = film producer | awards = Independent Spirit Award for Best Film 2007 Little Miss Sunshine | spouse = Priscilla Nedd-Friendly | alma_mater = Northwestern University (BA)
David T. Friendly (born May 1, 1956) is an American film producer best known for co-producing the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Career
After graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1978, Friendly became a journalist, a staff writer at newsmagazine Newsweek. He moved to the Los Angeles Times in 1985 where he wrote about the entertainment industry and had a weekly column exploring the business side of the film industry until 1987,{{cite web| url = http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/summer2007/feature/friendly.html | title = The Producer| accessdate = August 8, 2008| date = December 7, 2007| publisher = Northwestern University| first = Ryan| last = Haggerty}} when he was approached by Imagine Entertainment co-founders Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, and he became Imagine's Vice President of Motion Pictures. after working at 20th Century Fox for three years where he produced Big Momma's House, they produced their first feature, Laws of Attraction.
Friendly went on to produce Duane Hopwood, The Honeymooners and Big Momma's House 2 with Deep River under different labels before producing the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine with Turtletaub, Ron Yerxa, Albert Berger and Peter Saraf, for which they were all nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and a BAFTA Award for Best Film, as well as winning an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and a PGA Award for a Theatrical Motion Picture. After the release of Little Miss Sunshine, which had been in production at Deep River Productions for six years, Friendly and Turtletaub split and left the company to work elsewhere and Friendly made a two-year producing deal with 20th Century Fox that landed him producing roles on the 2008 film Meet Dave and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. He is also set to produce the upcoming projects Office Romance, Q School, and The Warden.
Personal life
Friendly is the son of Jewish American journalist Fred W. Friendly, the president of CBS News from 1964 to 1966 (whom George Clooney portrayed in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck). His brother is fellow producer Andy Friendly. He is married to film editor Priscilla Nedd-Friendly.
Filmography
Film
::data[format=table]
| Title | Role | Director | Release date | Co-production | Production company | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Girl | Executive producer | Howard Zieff | November 27, 1991 | Imagine Entertainment | Columbia Pictures | |
| For Love or Money | Executive producer | Barry Sonnenfeld | October 1, 1993 | Universal Pictures | ||
| My Girl 2 | Executive producer | Howard Zieff | February 11, 1994 | Columbia Pictures | ||
| Greedy | Executive producer | Jonathan Lynn | March 1, 1994 | Universal Pictures | ||
| Courage Under Fire | Producer | Edward Zwick | July 12, 1996 | Davis Entertainment | 20th Century Fox | |
| The Chamber | Executive producer | James Foley | October 11, 1996 | Imagine Entertainment | Universal Pictures | |
| Daylight | Producer | Rob Cohen | December 6, 1996 | Davis Entertainment | ||
| Out to Sea | Producer | Martha Coolidge | July 2, 1997 | 20th Century Fox | ||
| Digging to China | Producer | Timothy Hutton | July 16, 1997 | Moonstone Entertainment | ||
| Dr. Dolittle | Producer | Betty Thomas | June 26, 1998 | 20th Century Fox | ||
| Here on Earth | Producer | Mark Piznarski | March 24, 2000 | |||
| Big Momma's House | Producer | Raja Gosnell | June 2, 2000 | Regency Enterprises | ||
| Laws of Attraction | Producer | Peter Howitt | April 30, 2004 | Mobius Pictures | ||
| Intermedia | ||||||
| Deep River Productions | ||||||
| Irish Dreamtime | ||||||
| Initial Entertainment Group | New Line Cinema | |||||
| The Honeymooners | Producer | John Schultz | June 10, 2005 | Paramount Pictures | ||
| Duane Hopwood | Producer | Matt Mulhern | November 11, 2005 | Big Beach | IFC Films | |
| Big Momma's House 2 | Producer | John Whitesell | January 27, 2006 | Regency Enterprises | 20th Century Fox | |
| Little Miss Sunshine | Producer | [Jonathan Dayton | ||||
| Valerie Faris](jonathan-dayton-and-valerie-faris) | August 18, 2006 | Big Beach | ||||
| Bona Fide Productions | ||||||
| Deep River Productions | ||||||
| Third Gear Productions | Fox Searchlight Pictures | |||||
| Meet Dave | Producer | Brian Robbins | July 11, 2008 | Regency Enterprises | 20th Century Fox | |
| Soul Men | Producer | Malcolm D. Lee | November 7, 2008 | Dimension Films | MGM | |
| Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | Producer | John Whitesell | February 18, 2011 | Regency Enterprises | 20th Century Fox | |
| Sneakerheadz | Producer | David T. Friendly | ||||
| Mick Patridge | August 7, 2015 | AT&T Originals | ||||
| I.T. | Producer | John Moore | September 23, 2016 | Voltage Pictures | ||
| Irish Dreamtime | ||||||
| Friendly Films | ||||||
| Fastnet Films | ||||||
| 22h22 | RLJ Entertainment | |||||
| The First to Do It | Executive Producer | Coocie Simmons | ||||
| Chike Ozah | February 2018 | Diario Films | ||||
| Drunk Parents | Executive Producer | Fred Wolf | April 19, 2019 | Vertical Entertainment | DirecTV | |
| :: |
Television
::data[format=table]
| Title | Creator | Role | Start date | Last date | Season | Episode(s) | Production company | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen of the South | M.A. Fortin | ||||||||
| Joshua John Miller | Executive producer | 5 | 63 | Frequency Films | |||||
| Friendly Films | |||||||||
| Fox 21 Television Studios | |||||||||
| Universal Content Productions | USA Network | ||||||||
| :: |
References
References
- "Board of Directors: David Friendly – Advisory Board". US-Ireland Alliance.
- Fleming}} {{Dead link, Michael. (October 2010). "Deep River funnels indies to Big Beach".
- Fleming, Michael. (September 24, 2004). "Fox, Friendly ink production pact".
- Gardner, Chris. (November 20, 2005). "Hopper flows to Deep River".
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