Richard Sakai

Richard Sakai born January 28 1954 is an American television and film producer He is best known for his work on the animated sitcom The Simpsons for which he is one of the original producers In 1997 Sakai was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for his work on the film Jerry Maguire 1996 Sakai began his career as an assistant to James L Brooks in 1977 In 1984 Brooks invited Sakai to become a producer in his new film production company Gracie Films Sakai ultimately produced many of Brooks films such as Jerry Maguire As Good as It Gets 1997 and Spanglish 2004 Sakai also produced Bottle Rocket 1996 and Riding in Cars with Boys 2001 Additionally he was a producer for The Simpsons Movie 2007 As a television producer and director Sakai has worked on many different shows He has directed episodes of Taxi Newhart and Whos the Boss He has also produced episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show The Critic Phenom and What About Joan in addition to his work on The Simpsons for which he has won several Emmy Awards On The Simpsons Sakai has been animated several times most notably as a karaoke singer in the episode One Fish Two Fish Blowfish Blue Fish an escaping prisoner in a commercial about revolving door prisons in Sideshow Bob Roberts and a jazz vibraphone player in Jazzy and the Pussycats Sakai is currently president of Gracie Films Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Sakai licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia