Gary R. Benz

President & CEO, GRB Entertainment

An entrepreneur who helped set the standard for action reality programming on network television, Gary R. Benz looked beyond the domestic marketplace to establish GRB Entertainment as a world-class television producer and international distributor. Mr. Benz has created and produced more than 2500 hours of broadcast, cable and syndicated programming, including live events, specials and numerous award-winning series.

As a hands-on Executive Producer, Mr. Benz has overseen such programs as Intervention, nominated in 2008 for two Emmy Awards (Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming) and the recipient of multiple PRISM Awards (A&E), Next Action Star, ten unscripted hours and a two-hour movie with Silver Pictures Television (NBC), Princes of Malibu (Fox), Expeditions to the Edge (Nat Geo Channel), Cannonball Run (USA), Invasion Iowa (Spike), AXN: Action TV (Columbia Tri-Star for the Fox Family Channel) and over 525 hours for Discovery Communications Inc.

Since forming Los Angeles-based GRB Entertainment in 1987, Mr. Benz has created international co-productions with strategic partnerships worldwide. These global productions include more than 60 primetime hours with Alliance-Atlantis, the 200-episode primetime strip, Echt Wahr, for Germany's Sat 1, and Now See This! for France's TF1, the Discovery Channel, and hundreds of networks around the world.

Mr. Benz is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors Foundation and has recently been elected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors for the Entertainment Industries Council, Inc.