Avi Arad

**Avi Arad** is an Israeli-American businessmen. He became CEO of the company Toy Biz in the 1990's, and soon afterward became chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment, a Marvel director, and the chairman, CEO, and founder of Marvel Studios. He was an executive producer on Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

## Biography

### Early life

Avi Arad was born on August 1, 1948 in Israel, to Holocaust survivors from Poland. He spent his childhood in Israel, and grew up reading Superman and Spider-Man comics that were translated into Hebrew. In 1965 he joined the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the Six-Day War in 1967 where he was wounded. In 1968 Arad finished his military service.

In 1970, Arad moved to the United States and enrolled at Hofstra University to study industrial management. He worked as a truck driver and Hebrew teacher to put himself through college, and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1972.

### Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Toy Biz

Avi Arad founded Toy Biz in 1988 and when Fox Kids was planning Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the early 90's Arad was the shows executive producer. Arad always intended for Spider-Man: The Animated Series to be "One big toy commerical" so that his Toy Biz company could create and sell toys based on the series. This bought Arad into conflict with the producer and head writer of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, John Semper Jr.. Arad almost fired Semper because Semper wanted to create a well written and exciting show but Arad only wanted the show to sell toys. However, Arad found common ground with John Semper Jr. when Semper convinced Arad that a good show could sell toys better than anything else.

The head of Fox Kids, Margaret Loesch hated Avi Arad and wanted to put him out of business. So when Avi Arad began to antagonize the network this gave Loesch the opportunity she needed and cancelled Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

### Later career

On may 31, 2006, Arad resigned his various Marvel positions, including his leadership of of Marvel Studios to form his own production company, Arad Productions. Although he is still producing projects for Marvel, his first feature outside of Marvel was the 2007 film Bratz: The Movie. Future ventures included an adaptation of the mange Ghost in the Shell; an adaptation of Brandon Mull's best-seller teenage fantasy, Fablehaven; an adaption of James Patterson's award winning teenage novel Maximum Ride; an adaption of BioWares's award-winning video game franchise, Mass Effect; the adaptations of two Sony PlayStation properties, Uncharted an inFAMOUS, and Metal Gear Solid.

On August 25, 2010, it was anounced that Arad was given a chair with the American branch of animation studio Production I.G. in Los Angeles, California.

## Credits

### Executive Producer

* Night of the Lizard
* The Spider Slayer
* Return of the Spider Slayer
* Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
* The Menace of Mysterio
* The Sting of the Scorpion
* Kraven the Hunter
* The Alien Costume, Part I
* The Alien Costume, Part II
* The Alien Costume, Part III
* The Hobgoblin, Part I
* The Hobgoblin, Part II
* Day of the Chameleon
* The Insidious Six
* Battle of the Insidious Six
* Hydro-Man
* The Mutant Agenda
* Mutants' Revenge
* Morbius
* Enter the Punisher
* Duel of the Hunters
* Blade, the Vampire Hunter
* The Immortal Vampire
* Tablet of Time
* Ravages of Time
* Shriek of the Vulture
* The Final Nightmare
* Doctor Strange
* Make a Wish
* Attack of the Octobot
* Enter the Green Goblin
* Rocket Racer
* Framed
* The Man Without Fear
* The Ultimate Slayer
* Tombstone
* The Spot
* Venom Returns
* Carnage
* Goblin War!
* Turning Point
* Guilty
* The Cat
* The Black Cat
* The Return of Kraven
* Partners
* The Awakening
* The Vampire Queen
* The Return of the Green Goblin

### Writer

* Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous
* The Alien Costume, Part I

## Trivia

* According to John Semper Jr., Matthew Edelman and Avi Arad would constantly take script and episode outlines off of his desk and use them to pitch movie ideas to movie studios.
* During the 25th anniversary panel of Spider-Man: The Animated Series it was revealed that Avi Arad was using Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a template to see how Spider-Man would work as a live action movie.