Avi Arad (/ˈɑːvi ˈɑːrɑːd/; Hebrew: אבי ארד; born August 1, 1948) is an Israeli-American studio executive and producer of film, television, and animation. He became the CEO of Toy Biz in the 1990s, was the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, and is the founder, former chairman, and former CEO of the latter's successor, 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.
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 Defence 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.
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.
On May 31, 2006, Arad resigned from 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 the manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell; an adaptation of Brandon Mull's teenage fantasy Fablehaven (which died in production); an adaptation of James Patterson's teenage novel Maximum Ride; and adaptations of video game properties Uncharted, Infamous, Metal Gear Solid, and The Legend of Zelda.
In August 2010, it was announced that Arad was given a chair with the American branch of animation studio Production I.G in Los Angeles, California.
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