Neil Blair (agent)

Neil Blair is an English literary agent, television producer, and film producer.

Neil Blair
Born
United Kingdom
NationalityEnglish
OccupationLiterary agent, television producer, film producer

Early life

Neil Blair studied law at Exeter College, Oxford.[1][2]

Career

In 1990, after graduating from college, Blair joined the litigation team at the global law firm Linklaters.[3] He later started to work on Warner Bros. Entertainment. In 2001, Neil Blair left his position of Head of Business Affairs, Europe, for Warner Bros. Entertainment, working on productions such as Band of Brothers and Eyes Wide Shut and helping acquire the film rights for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, to join the Christopher Little Literary Agency.[4][5] In 2011, Blair left Christopher Little Literary Agency to founded The Blair Partnership and became the literary agent of J.K. Rowling, who had been with the Christopher Little Literary Agency since 1996.[6][7]

He is the Chairman of the Board and a Director of Pottermore and Chairman of the production companies Brontë Film and Television, founded to develop and produce projects commissioned from J.K. Rowling’s novels,[8][9] and Snowed-In Productions, founded to work on non J.K. Rowling projects.[10]

Charitable work

Blair is Chairman of J.K. Rowling’s children’s charity Lumos. He is a UK ambassador for The Abraham Initiatives[11] and a board member of JW3.[12] In 2017, he supported the construction of archive space and a reading room on Exeter College’s Cohen Quadrangle to help preserve 30,000 rare books, including important Judaica such as the Soncino Bible, the earliest full text bible ever printed.[13]

Personal life

He is married to Debra. He has said that books and being Jewish "are very close to my heart".[14] He is a fan of West Ham and Saracens.[15]

Filmography
Year Title Credited as Ref.
Executive producer
2015 The Casual Vacancy Yes [16]
2016 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Yes [17]
2017–present Strike Yes [18]
2018 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Yes [19]
Mrs. Wilson Yes [20]
gollark: Ah, that 2G prize should be reaching the AP soonish.
gollark: * nooooooo
gollark: (they do, and it works now)
gollark: So I need a frozen hatchling in order to check whether non-growing ones have a sentence or something missing which I can use.
gollark: Well, I'm trying to get information about dragons by parsing their view pages (I don't have API access).

References
  1. https://www.theblairpartnership.com/2017/09/29/literary-agent-neil-blair-opens-the-neil-blair-special-collections-reading-room-at-oxford-university/
  2. https://www.brontefilmandtv.co.uk/biographies
  3. https://issuu.com/linklaters/docs/linklaters_history_passing_the_flame/147
  4. "Neil Blair". The Blair Partnership. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  5. "Neil Blair, founder, The Blair Partnership". Variety. December 5, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  6. Charlotte Williams, "Rowling leaves Christopher Little Agency" The Bookseller.com30.06.11
  7. Shiv Malik, "Harry Potter author JK Rowling leaves her agent" The Guardian, Sunday 3 July 2011
  8. https://www.brontefilmandtv.co.uk/biographies
  9. https://www.brontefilmandtv.co.uk/work
  10. https://www.brontefilmandtv.co.uk/snowed-in-productions
  11. "UK Friends of the Abraham Initiatives". Abraham Initiatives. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  12. "Advertising boss chosen as new JW3 chair". Jewish News. 6 December 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  13. "NEIL BLAIR OPENS THE NEIL BLAIR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS READING ROOM AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY". The Blair Partnership. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  14. "NEIL BLAIR OPENS THE NEIL BLAIR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS READING ROOM AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY". The Blair Partnership. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  15. Blair, Neil. "Neil Blair". NeilBlairTBP. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  16. Goldberg, Lesley (23 April 2019). "J.K. Rowling, HBO, BBC Team for 'Casual Vacancy' Miniseries". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  17. "Warner Bros. Announces Expanded Creative Partnership with J.K. Rowling". Warner Bros. Pictures. Business Wire. 22 September 2010. Archived from the original on 15 September 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  18. Barraclough, Leo (2 November 2016). "Holliday Grainger to Star in J.K. Rowling's 'Cormoran Strike' TV Series (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  19. "A Thrilling New Adventure in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World is Underway". Warner Bros. Pictures. Business Wire. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  20. "Star cast join Ruth Wilson in BBC drama" (Press release). BBC. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
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