Will Packer

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Will Packer (born April 11, 1974) is an American film director.

Will Packer Productions and Will Packer Media are among the founders of several high-profile lists, including "Who's Hottest People in Comedy," Jet magazine's "The GIANT 100," and Black Enterprise's "Most Powerful Players Under 40," as well as "Most Powerful Players Under 40." Packer has produced or executive produced 28 films (including Girls Trip, Ride Along, and Think Like a Man) that have grossed over $1 billion at the box office as of 2018.

Early life and education

Packer was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida. He graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1991 and began attending Florida A&M University in the fall. Packer was recognized with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1996. FAMU personally honored Packer by renaming its amphitheater the Will Packer Amphitheater on October 29, 2021.

Personal life

Packer is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (inducted into the Beta Nu Chapter at FAMU). Nina Packer, the company's general manager of Bryant Management and Dir.), married Packer's first wife. Operations for Blueprint Group, the artist-management company for Lil' Wayne and his YMCMB brand from 2007-2014, have two daughters together, Nija Packer and Maya Packer. They were divorced in February 2009. At the 2013 Essence Music Festival, Packer proposed to his fiancé Heather Hayslett live on stage. They were married in Georgia in August 2015.

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Career

When participating in an internship with veteran producer Warrington Hudlin, he started filmmaking at FAMU with colleague and future business partner Rob Hardy. Packer and Hardy produced Chocolate City, their first film in 1994, for $20,000, and Packer and Hardy helped broker a small distribution agreement with Blockbuster video. Packer and Hardy followed graduation to Atlanta, Georgia, where they co-founded Rainforest Films. Packer produced and oversaw the company's film-financed and self-financed film production and distribution initiatives. Packer and Hardy's intention was to produce films that would appeal to black audiences who had never seen genre films starring people like themselves.

Trois, Rainforest Film's first film to be released theatrically in 2000, earned over $1.2 million and became Africa's first million-dollar grossing film independently distributed by African Americans. Trois was listed as one of the Top 50 Independent Films of the Year by Daily Variety, and Rainforest Films debuted at #34 on the list of Top 100 Film Distributors of 2000 by The Hollywood Reporter in August 2001. Packer and Hardy were included in the "New Establishment" of Black power brokers in Hollywood thanks to the success of their first film.

Packer negotiated an agreement with Sony to produce and distribute urban films including Trois' sequel, Trois: The Escort, and Motives in 2001. Under this Rainforest-Sony collaboration, the film Lockdown was released on home video. Rainforest Films released The Gospel in 2005. Packer's moniker, "Will Packer," was used at this point.

Established actors and actresses as well as those who are new and old were included in Rainforest's films, according to Packer and Hardy. This Christmas, a film about a middle-class family that reunites at Christmas time for the first time in many years, stars veteran actress Loretta Devine and Regina King, as well as R&B veteran Chris Brown in his debut feature film. Rainforest, Stomp the Yard, Obsessed, Takers, Think Like a Man and Ride Along was one of Packer's five best films. Rainforest's two most popular shows with him have been Think Like a Man, which has grossed over $96 million worldwide since being unveiled in April 2012, and Ride Along, which has earned over $150,000 as of April 2014.

Packer, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, and Rainforest Films partner Rob Hardy are co-founders of Bounce TV, a United States television network available on digital terrestrial television stations. Bounce TV, the first 24-hour digital multicast television network created exclusively for African Americans," the Bounce TV network was announced on September 26, 2011 and includes blacks and African Americans in the 25-54 age group.

Packer and Hardy Dissolved Rainforest Films in June 2014. In late June 2014, the pair were involved in a lawsuit brought by former business partner Bernard Bronner.

Will Packer Productions was established in 2013 by Packer. In July 2013, he signed a two-year deal with Universal Television to produce new projects for the studio. He began a three-year contract with Universal Pictures later this year. Will Packer Productions' main films include Ride Along 2, No Good Deed, and Think Like a Man Too, as well as The Wedding Ringer and Girls Trip. Girls Trip was the first live action comedy to gross over $100 million, and it was the first film written, directed, produced, and starring African-Americans. The film earned $140 million on a $19 million budget. Packer also appeared as executive producer on the NWA's Straight Outta Compton and on the 2016 television mini-series Roots.

Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish appear in What Men Want (2019), starring Taraji P. Henson, and Little (2019), starring Marsai Martin and Issa Rae, and Kevin Hart. Packer has been included in numerous high-profile publications, including "The Hollywood Reporter's "Most Powerful People in Comedy," Jet magazine's "The GIANT 100," and Black Enterprise's "Most Powerful Players Under 40," as well as "Most Powerful People Under 40."

Packer Media, a branded content and digital production company, joined by Discovery Communications and Universal Pictures in 2017, introduced Will Packer Media, a branded content and digital production firm. The company hired digital ad agency Narrative_ to assist as the new venture's digital content arm, WP Narrative, as part of the launch. Will Packer Media acquired xoNecole, a women's lifestyle website, in 2018.

Will Packer Media produce television series Ambitions and Ready to Love for OWN, Power Star Live, a 30-minute live series on Twitter; and digital series The Baxters, produced for Roma Downey's LightWorkers platform. The company's WP Narrative division was a 2018 Webby Award winner and the 10th Annual Shorty Award winner for its production of the short film #TakeAKnee. The WP Narrative campaign, as well as the 2018 D&AD Awards, was also recognized for its #BackedByAxe campaign developed for Showtime's Billions.

On Fox television stations, Central Ave, an entertainment magazine series, debuted on November 4, 2019.

Packer was named the Producer of the 94th Annual Academy Awards, which aired on March 27, 2022. This was his first "live" television production credit for a major television network (ABC) and was broadcast in more than 200 countries around the world. Will Smith was overshadowed by his appearance on stage and slapping host Chris Rock after he made a remark about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith's hair. After criticism that he was being smug, Packer immediately tweeted, "Welp... I said it wouldn't be boring." Later, he expressed sadness by tweeting that it was "a really difficult moment for me." Packer was "the key to Smith's remaining in his position," according to Variety. "And the reason they didn't go and take him out is because it would have been another 15-, 20-minute explanation of why we're taking the Black man out five seconds before they're about to determine whether he's won an Oscar or not."

Critics, employees of the industry, and audiences of the ceremony all agreed that the ceremony and Patrick's handling of Smith's assault on Rock received a lot of skepticism. Packer's production was compared to that of Allan Carr, who produced the infamous 1989 Oscar ceremony. Packer appeared on Good Morning America without the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' approval to defend his conduct and claim that Rock told him that he did not want Smith to be barred from the ceremony. However, this was contradicted by The Hollywood Reporter journalist Matthew Belloni's report, "Packer's assertion of Rock's apparent wishes was not necessarily correct." I've got it on good authority that Rock never said that, and he only told the LAPD backstage that he didn't want this to be a criminal matter."

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