Gary Alazraki

Gary "Gaz" Alazraki is the writer and director of Mexico's record breaking comedy Nosotros los Nobles (2013) and the co-creator, executive producer and director of Club de Cuervos (2015), Netflix's first original series in Spanish. He heads Alazraki Entertainment, a Mexico City-based production company focused on high-quality entertainment for general audiences in Latin America and Hispanic USA.

Gary Alazraki, 2017

Background and education

Gary "Gaz" Alazraki was born and raised in Mexico City in a family of Turkish Jewish descent; his great-grandfather León Alazraki Barquí was a textile industrialist who immigrated to Mexico from Turkey. Alazraki's grandfather Benito Alazraki was a director and screenwriter and his father Carlos Alazraki was an advertising executive. Alazraki went to the American School Foundation in Mexico City. He studied a year in Boston and did the second half of his college education at the University of Southern California. His grandfather was prominent Mexican filmmaker Benito Alazraki, and his father Carlos Alazraki Grossman went on to work in television for many years before he opened his own advertising agency, Alazraki and Associates Advertising, in 1977, the same year Gary was born.

Gary Alazraki began his studies of communications at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City, but after going on to take an eight-week summer program at the New York Film Academy, he transferred to the USC School of Cinematic Arts to pursue a career in film and television.[1]

Early career

Gaz chose to acquire on-set experience by working on big productions in the advertising industry, while doing short films on the side. He worked as assistant director for filmmaker and commercial director Alejandro González Padilla, where he got his first break directing commercials for blue chip companies in Mexico.[2]

In 2004 he opened his own production company, Agave Shots, in partnership with Pitipol Ibarra and under the mentorship of Simón Bross, where they continued directing commercials for the advertising industry. In the same year he directed Volver, volver (2005), his first important short film which caught the interest of upcoming local stars Jaime Camil, Martha Higareda, Tony Dalton as well as Oscar nominee and Palme d'Or winner Guillermo Arriaga who invited Gaz to direct La hora cero (2008), a short film he was producing for Terra Films, a project Lucas Akoskin put together. It was part of an experiment where Arriaga wanted to see how different directors would direct the same six pages he wrote.[3]

Nosotros los Nobles

In 2008 Gaz and Pitipol closed Agave Shots, and Gaz began working on the screenplay for Nosotros los Nobles (2013). In March 2013, the film was released with distribution by Warner Bros. With 650 prints, Nosotros los Nobles (2013) was the biggest release for a Mexican movie in history. Nobles doubled the record for highest grossing Mexican film in history, with 7.2 million viewers and $340 million pesos in box office sales, after El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002) had held the top position for eleven years.[4][5]

It also became the 16th highest-grossing film in history of all films played in Mexican territory, and stayed in the top-10 charts for seventeen weeks, won Best Movie by iTunes Store Mexico, and garnered the highest grossing home video sales in Mexican history, outperforming Hollywood films.

Club de Cuervos

Gaz teamed up again with Luis Gerardo Méndez on Club de Cuervos (2015), an original idea he co-created with Michael Lam. Netflix bought the pitch in 2014 with the idea of making their first Spanish-speaking original series, produced in Mexico for the world. The first season consists of thirteen episodes, twelve of which Gaz directed and edited.[6]

Partial filmography

References
  1. González, Susana. "Gary, la reivindicación de un Alazraki". Quien. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "Gary Alazraki". Alazraki Films. Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. "Gary Alazraki". Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. "Nosotros los nobles: un éxito inesperado". Forces México. Archived from the original on 2 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. "2013 Mexico Yearly Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. Spangler, Todd. "Netflix Comedy 'Club de Cuervos' Starts Shooting in Mexico". Variety. Archived from the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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