Eric Newman is an American film and television producer and writer and the founder of Grand Electric, an LA-based production company with overall deals in both TV and film with Netflix. He was most recently showrunner of both Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. Biography Born and raised in Los Angeles, Newman is a graduate of Curtis School, Harvard Boys School (Now Harvard-Westlake School), and the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television (now known as the USC School of Cinematic Arts). He is the son of multiple Academy Award, Emmy, and Grammy-winning composer and songwriter Randy Newman and his first wife, Roswitha Schmale (1944-2017). He is the cousin of composers David Newman and Thomas Newman and the great-nephew of Academy Award winning composers Lionel Newman, Emil Newman, and Alfred Newman. He first worked as an intern and assistant for the television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1993-1995 before segueing into a job with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video as a production executive. There Newman helped oversee the 1995 Chris Farley/David Spade film, Tommy Boy as well as their 1996 reteaming, Black Sheep. Newman joined Beacon Communications (now known as Beacon Pictures) in 1999 as a development and production executive. During his tenure there the company produced a variety of movies under its production deal with Universal Studios including: The Family Man, Bring It On, 13 Days, The Hurricane, and 2001’s Tony Scott directed Spy Game, starring Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, which Newman helped supervise. He was also executive producer of the 2002 drama The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline and directed by Michael Hoffman. Newman left Beacon in 2000 to partner with veteran producer and director Marc Abraham and producer Thomas A. Bliss to form Strike Entertainment. In 2001, Newman secured the rights to remake George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead and recruited his friend James Gunn to write it. Soon after he drafted first-time director Zack Snyder to direct it. The 2004 Dawn of the Dead had a modest budget of $26 million, and was a huge success with audiences when it was released in 2004, reaping over $100 million worldwide. Newman's success in the horror genre continued with James Gunn’s directorial debut film, Slither in 2006. Also produced by Newman in 2006 was Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. Children of Men drew critical acclaim, ultimately being nominated for three Academy