Biography

Purchased the film rights to the first four Harry Potter books back in 1999 for $2 million. The series has since grossed $4.48 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing film franchise in history.

His father John Heyman raised over $4 billion for over 100 films. He taught his son the importance of finding the right property to make into a film.

2007 - Ranked #9 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

Studied Art History at Harvard University. After graduating, he almost followed the career path of an art dealer.

In 2020, Heyman had the distinction of being the only producer with two (2) films nominated for Best Picture: Marriage Story (2019) and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019).

Jo [J.K. Rowling], thank you for making spectacles and red hair really cool. Thank you for encouraging a generation of people to read. Thank you for allowing us to make films from your books. Thank you for your support and your friendship and your brilliance, and for making these past ten years or more absolutely unforgettable.

I don't think that Twilight is the next Harry Potter, it's completely different. Yes, it's aimed for people under 20 primarily, but it's much more... Harry Potter has an innocence. It's about a school. And then you look at The Hunger Games, which is again completely different. There is no relation to Harry Potter. The term 'fantasy' possibly, but one of the reasons I was able to relate to Potter was that I never thought of it as fantasy. It was reality. It was a bit off-kilter, but it was really grounded in reality: a school, friendship, loyalty, betrayal.

At the time [1987], I was really interested in urban films, and obsessed with hip-hop. Carhartt jacket, hoodie, Timberland boots. You wouldn't believe it now looking at me, but yeah, that was me. My closest friend, Peter Frankfurt, gave me a script by Gerard Brown and Ernest Dickerson, who was Spike Lee's cinematographer. Several years earlier, I had tried to persuade my father to finance She's Gotta Have It, but hadn't pushed hard enough! I read the script and loved it. Juice wound up being financed by Chris Blackwell. We went to New York and began the casting process, with Ernest directing. One of the people who we cast was a rapper named Tupac Shakur. He came in with another rapper called Shock G, who was auditioning. Shock G didn't work out, but Tupac asked if he could try. And just hit it out of the park. Everybody's jaw dropped. He left the room, shut the door, and then stuck his head back in and said, "By the way, you'd better give me the part because I know where y'all live." And he shut the door again. He got the part. He had a wicked sense of humor. I adored him and respected him in so many ways. But he was self-destructive. I'm still sad that he's no longer with us.

I like so many of the [Potter] characters. I like the fact that none of the characters, other than Voldemort, are pure good or pure evil. Even Harry has his demons. That's what makes them so rich. I like characters like Lupin, and I love Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville. I enjoy characters like Bellatrix, even though I don't want to be her!

One of the many things I enjoy about Jo Rowling's books is the depth of the characters she has created. As the books progress, layers are peeled away, and we gradually realize that her characters' motives are rarely either black or white - Jo is comfortable with varying shades of grey.