Production Team Announced for 86th Annual Academy Awards!

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron today announced 13 key members of the production team for the Oscars® , which will air on Sunday, March 2, live on ABC.

Director Hamish Hamilton returns to the show after having directed the 82nd Oscars in March 2010. Hamilton has directed many celebrated live televised events, including the 2013 "MTV Video Music Awards," the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Beyoncé, and the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, for which he received an Emmy® nomination. Hamilton also shared in the 2011 Peabody Award for the fifth annual "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" and was a 2003 Grammy Award® nominee for directing the musical special "Robbie Williams - Live at the Albert." He will direct the upcoming 2014 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bruno Mars.

Production designer Derek McLane was part of the team behind the 85th Oscars, which Zadan and Meron produced. During his career, McLane has designed sets for numerous acclaimed Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. He has received four Tony Award® nominations and won one for his work on 33 Variations. McLane designs can currently be seen in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. His other Broadway credits include The Heiress, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Follies, Anything Goes, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Grease and I Am My Own Wife. McLane's television credits include the recent NBC event "The Sound of Music Live!" He was nominated for a 2013 Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction for Variety or Nonfiction Programming for his work on the 85th Academy Awards.

Choreographer Rob Ashford has worked on two previous Oscar telecasts, including last year's show and the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009, for which he won an Emmy. Ashford was recently nominated for a Directors Guild Award in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series for NBC's broadcast of "The Sound of Music Live!" which was executive produced by Zadan and Meron. Ashford has been nominated for eight Tony Awards and won for Best Choreography in 2002 for Thoroughly Modern Millie. Additional Broadway choreography credits include The Wedding Singer, Curtains, Cry-Baby and Evita. He also served as choreographer on the upcoming feature film adaptation of "Cinderella," directed by Kenneth Branagh.

In addition to Ellen DeGeneres' team of writers, Zadan and Meron have brought in Kristin Gore, Amy Ozols and Jon Macks to complete the writing staff. Gore is a novelist and screenwriter whose past credits include "Futurama" and "Saturday Night Live" and whose current projects include a Showtime pilot with director Bennett Miller, an HBO pilot with director Jay Roach, and a Dreamworks movie with director Lance Accord. Ozols was formerly a writer and producer for "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Macks, a longtime writer for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and has been nominated for 6 Emmys. He has written for numerous major awards shows, Including 17 prior Oscar telecasts.

Music director William Ross returns to the Oscars after working on the 79th, 83rd and 85th Academy Awards. Ross is a four-time Emmy winner whose musical arrangements have played a part in the opening ceremonies of several Super Bowls as well as the opening and/or closing ceremonies of five Olympic Games. Ross earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction for his work on the 85th Academy Awards show. He has also composed music for numerous feature films, including "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Ladder 49."

Costume designers Julie Weiss and Bruce Pask return to the Oscars after working together on the 85th Academy Awards. Pask is the Men's Fashion Director of T Magazine at The New York Times. He has served as fashion editor at notable publications for more than two decades and has worked with Annie Leibovitz on numerous covers for Vanity Fair and on advertising campaigns for "The Sopranos." Pask debuted as a costume designer for the stage in Joe Montello's Broadway revival of Noel Coward's "Design for Living." He has created costumes for the Broadway musical revival of "Promises, Promises," directed by Rob Ashford, who also worked with him on the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors for which Pask received Emmy honors.

Weiss has designed costumes for more than 50 feature films, including her Oscar-nominated work for "Frida" and "Twelve Monkeys." Her credits include "Steel Magnolias," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "American Beauty," "Hitchcock," "Bobby," "Auto Focus," "Blades of Glory," "The Freshman," "A Simple Plan," "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and "The Missing." Weiss has earned Emmys for her work in "The Dollmaker" and "Woman of Independent Means" and has an additional five Emmy nominations. Her Broadway credits include "The Elephant Man" for which she received a Tony nomination and has worked with Rob Ashford in last season's production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." She is currently designing for Ashford's production of the opera, "Carmen." Weiss is the recipient of the Career Achievement Award from The Costume Designers Guild.

This is the first time talent producer Taryn Hurd has worked on an Oscar telecast or collaborated with the show's producers. Hurd has served as talent producer on events including the FOX network's "New Year's Eve Live," the Breeders' Cup telecast, "Teen Choice 2013" and "VH1 Divas Salute the Troops." She also has served as talent producer on the FOX series "So You Think You Can Dance" and ESPN's "SportsCenter." Previously, Hurd amassed numerous credits as talent executive on broadcasts such as "The ESPYS," the "Billboard Music Awards" and the "Critics' Choice Awards."

Also rejoining the production team are supervising producer Michael Seligman, co-producer Lee Lodge and lighting designer Robert Dickinson.

Seligman has more than 300 major television events to his credit and has earned a total of 11 Emmy nominations, including nine for his work on Oscar telecasts. Seligman's other producing credits include "The American Giving Awards," "America Celebrates July 4th at Ford's Theatre," "Stand Up to Cancer" and "Return to the Titanic...Live!"

Lodge has served as either co-producer or creative producer for the past five Oscar broadcasts. His credits also include co-executive producer on the "MTV Video Music Awards" in 2012 and 2013, creative producer on the "CMA Awards" since 2010 and creative producer on the "Billboard Music Awards" since 2011.

Winner of 18 Primetime Emmys, lighting designer Robert Dickinson has worked on 26 Oscar broadcasts, including the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. His numerous other credits include the "Kennedy Center Honors," "Grammy Awards," " The Emmy Awards," "Tony Awards," "American Music Awards," Olympic Ceremonies in Atlanta, Salt Lake and Vancouver, the broadcast of the "Sound of Music Live!" and "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show."

The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 16, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater by actor Chris Hemsworth and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, will also be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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