Tom Nunan ’84

Crash surprised the movie industry. The small, independent film quietly turned into one of the year’s most profitable movies and then became one of two strong frontrunners in the battle for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Picture.

That is great news for Bruin producer Tom Nunan ’84. Nunan is cofounder and partner in Bull’s Eye Entertainment, the independent television and film production company that produced Crash.

Founded in November 2002, Bull’s Eye is a partnership between Nunan and former Artists Production Group partner and current UCLA faculty member Cathy Schulman. The company also has produced a comedy pilot for CBS, has multiple network and cable projects in development, and has produced four motion pictures – Employee of the Month, Thumbsucker, The Illusionist and Crash – with several more in preproduction.

Bull’s Eye Entertainment has also successfully secured a first-look feature film production deal with Paramount Pictures and an overall deal for television with Sony Pictures Television. The Sony Television overall deal has already led to a six-episode mid-season “hybrid-comedy” series titled The Papdits, from Da Ali G Show head writer Ant Hines. Also in preparation is a television adaptation of Crash, being produced in association with Lion’s Gate Television for the F/X cable network.

Prior to forming Bull’s Eye Entertainment, Nunan was president of UPN. While president of UPN, Nunan was also nominated to the board of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, the largest and longest-running philanthropic organization in the entertainment industry. Shortly after joining the board, Nunan was made vice president, then president. He was responsible for several high-level entertainment and political guest speakers, including, but not limited to: Ted Turner, Mel Karmazin, George Stephanopoulos, Larry King, Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton.

Nunan held several prominent positions at the other networks as well, running all of NBC Studios’ primetime production, heading Fox network’s primetime and late-night efforts for television at ABC network. During his tenure as a network executive, Nunan has been responsible for the development of Martin, Living Single, King of the Hill, MADtv, The King of Queens, Profiler, The Pretender, Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, The Bachelor and The Dead Zone.

Nunan began his career as an executive at various independent television movie companies – Goober/Peters, Fries Entertainment, Weintraub Entertainment Group – before moving into the network executive suites.

A graduate of UCLA’s motion picture and television school, Nunan currently resides in Venice Beach, Calif., and continues a relationship with UCLA by teaching a television development and production course in the UCLA Masters Producing Program in association with UCLA’s M.B.A. program.