Neil Meron

Along with his partner Craig Zadan, American producer Neil Meron was one half of Storyline Entertainment, a production company whose greatest successes included a lengthy list of cinematic and television movies based around the musical genre, including big-screen remakes of "Chicago" (2002) and "Hairspray" (2007). Their other successes include TV biopics "The Beach Boys: An American Family" (2000) and "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows" (2001), the Queen Latifah-starring television remake of "Steel Magnolias" (2012) and the co-production with Steven Spielberg of NBC's Broadway drama series "Smash" (2012-). Meron and Zadan were also the co-producers of the movie "The Bucket List" (2007) and the 85th Annual Academy Awards (2013). As out gay men, many of their productions concerned gay issues, at least implicitly.