Craig Zadan And Neil Meron To Produce 85th Oscars

Television and theater producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will produce the 85th Academy Awards, the Academy's president Hawk Koch said Thursday. This will be their first turn at producing the Oscars, which are slated for Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Zadan and Meron served as executive producers on the 2002 Best Picture winner Chicago, which won Oscars in six of the 13 categories in which it received nominations. They have also earned 73 Emmy-nominations; 12 Tony-nominations; and seven Grammy-nominations throughout their careers.

Zadan and Meron’s work in television includes the series SMASH and movies A Raisin in the Sun and the upcoming Steel Magnolias.

On Broadway, they recently produced the Tony Award-winning revivals of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Promises, Promises.

"Craig and Neil have great talent relationships and bring an infectious energy to the production," said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson in a statement." They are creative producers in the best sense of the word."