Avi Arad

Avi Arad (אבי ארד; born 1948 ) is an Israeli-American film producer who became the CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990s and soon afterward became the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, and the chairman, CEO, and founder of Marvel Studios. Since then, he has produced and sometimes written a wide array of live-action, animated, and television comic book adaptations, including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the 2018 Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature.

Early life
Arad was born in 1948 in Ramat Gan, Israel, to a Jewish family. The son of Holocaust survivors from Poland, he grew up reading Superman and Spider-Man comics translated into Hebrew. In 1965, he was conscripted as a soldier into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He fought and was wounded in the 1967 Six-Day War, and spent 15 days recuperating. Arad finished his military service in 1968.

In 1970, Arad moved to the United States and enrolled at Hofstra University to study industrial management. He worked as a truck driver and as a Hebrew teacher to put himself through college, and graduated with a BBA in 1972.

Marvel Comics
Along with Israeli-American Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter, Avi Arad came into conflict with Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman over control of Marvel Comics in the wake of its 1996 bankruptcy. In the end, Arad and Perlmutter came out on top, with Toy Biz taking over Marvel Comics in a complicated deal that included obtaining the rights to Spider-Man and other superheroes that Marvel had sold earlier. He was involved in Marvel's emergence from bankruptcy and the expansion of the company's profile through licensing and movies.

Arad Productions


On May 31, 2006, Arad resigned his various Marvel positions, including his leadership of Marvel Studios, to form his own production company, Arad Productions (also known as Arad Animation), a company that primarily produces Marvel-licensed films separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His first non-Marvel film was 2007's Bratz. Further ventures include manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell; an adaptation of Brandon Mull's best-seller teenage fantasy Fablehaven (which died in production); an adaptation of James Patterson's award-winning teenage novel Maximum Ride; and adaptations of video game properties Uncharted, Infamous, Metal Gear Solid, and The Legend of Zelda.

Production I.G
On August 25, 2010, it was announced that Arad was given a chair with the American branch of animation studio Production I.G in Los Angeles, California.