Anthony Katagas

Anthony Katagas's very first producing effort was the indie food-service comedy "In the Weeds" (2000), starring Ellen Pompeo and Molly Ringwald. After that first effort, Katagas enjoyed quite a bit of Hollywood success as a producer, working with such Hollywood luminaries as Paul Haggis, John Singleton, Lasse Hallstrom and Sofia Coppola. Passionate about developing and producing homegrown New York City projects, Katagas founded Keep Your Head Productions in 1999. Keep Your Head produced films by critically-acclaimed experimental filmmaker Michael Almereyda, including "This So-Called Disaster" (2004) and "Happy Here and Now" (2002), as well as "Blackbird" (2007), a drama written and directed by Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Adam Rapp. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture alongside director Steve McQueen and executive producer Brad Pitt for the film "12 Years A Slave" (2013). Passionate and dedicated as he was to film, Katagas was even more passionate about lacrosse. The former Western New England University goalie continued to play on a master's division team even after moving to Los Angeles, earning MVP honors in 2013 after leading his team to a championship in the Las Vegas Lacrosse Showcase.