How Did I Get Here?

Roy Price

Head of Amazon Studios
from
  • Education
  • Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., class of 1985
  • Harvard, class of 1989
  • University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Los Angeles, class of 1995
  • Work Experience
  • 1989–90
    Film set assistant
  • 1990–92
    Financial analyst, Allen & Co.
  • 1995–2000
    Vice president for series development and current programming, Walt Disney
  • 2001–02
    Consultant, McKinsey
  • 2003–04
    Principal, Price Entertainment
  • 2004–09
    Group product manager, director, Amazon Video on Demand
  • 2009–14
    Director, Amazon Studios
  • 2014–Present
    Head of Amazon Studios, VP for Prime Video, Amazon
  • Life Lessons
  • “If you have an idea and everybody thinks it’s great, it’s probably passé.”
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  • “Always have a slightly unrealistic vision. You’ll be surprised by what can be realistic.”
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  • “If it’s not a little scary, then it’s probably not interesting or daring.”
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  • With Majors, 1972
    “I grew up in Beverly Hills. My father ran movie studios, and Lee Majors taught me to swim.”
  • “I realized that the people who ran the entertainment business either dropped out of school, like [David] Geffen and [Jeffrey] Katzenberg and [Barry] Diller, or were lawyers. It was too late for me to drop out, so I had to go to law school.”
  • On the set of Return to the Blue Lagoon, 1990
    “I’d gotten some exposure to film development, but I wanted more exposure to the finance part.”
  • “We did a deal with TiVo, which was significant, because it helped us get to televisions. On the way, I picked up 14 patents.”
  • At Amazon’s Emmy Awards party with Jeff Bezos, 2016
  • “I had to help everybody around Hollywood understand what we were trying to do and what the opportunity was for them and also help everybody in Seattle understand what to expect from the business.”
  • “I studied all the time—math and physics and computers. My Harvard interviewer spent most of the time asking why I wasn’t applying to MIT.”
  • With Sidney Poitier, 1986
  • “I have no outside interests. My interests are film, TV, literature, computers, and video games. And that’s it.”
  • “I was looking at startup opportunities in digital video.”
    With a Disney colleague, 1997
  • At the Manchester premiere with Michelle Williams, 2016
    “We saw Manchester by the Sea at Sundance and moved aggressively to get it. It’s gratifying and exciting that the movie received six Oscar nominations—we’re incredibly proud of the cast, crew, and everyone behind the film.”