Barry Weiss is a visionary animation and entertainment executive with an $8.6 Billion track record.  He has worked on some of the most profitable and award winning projects of the last fifteen years.  As an animation executive, producer, and collaborator with Sony and Turner, he is recognized as a creative and business leader in the evolution of the animation business and art form.

At Sony, Barry was instrumental in the successful creation of the animated characters for the Stuart Little and Spiderman franchises, as well characters for over 35 feature films including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Superman Returns and Academy Award nominee Surf’s Up. Barry is credited on 58 feature films and shorts, which garnered two Academy Award’s and eight additional Oscar nominations. 

Barry is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Short Subject and Feature Animation branch Executive Committee.  He is a charter member of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council and serves as Chairman of the Public Programs and Educational Sub-Committee.  In that role he has been responsible for leading the Council’s public discussion of current and emerging trends in technology in the overall motion picture industry.

Most recently Barry was the Senior Vice President of Animation Production and Artist Development for Sony Pictures Imageworks.  During his 14 year tenure at the studio, Barry planned, created and managed a collaborative creative team that produced the animation and created characters for projects, ranging in creative scope from “Open Season” to “I Am Legend”, which drove $150 million in annual revenue.

Barry’s animation career began at Hanna-Barbera and Turner Feature Animation, where he was the principal studio executive and producer, who designed, built and supervised the production infrastructure for the studio's feature film division.  The studio produced the Annie Award winning feature Film "Cats Don't Dance", which Barry co-produced.  He is considered an exceptional budget and resource manager with skills in production and studio management, corporate strategic planning, financial management and operational implementation and talent development.  Barry has lectured all over the world on the subject of animation and technological change.  He has been a keynote speaker at many industry events and major universities.

He received his master's degree in film from the University of Southern California and his undergraduate degree in television and film from Northwestern University.

At the age of twenty two, while still an undergraduate, Barry was the recipient of a Chicago Area Emmy Award for children's programming, as producer of "The Magic Door" for CBS. Barry began his Hollywood career as a Tour Guide at Universal Studio’s Hollywood. He still has fond memories of his daily encounters with mechanical sharks and flash floods.