Mary Richards

Emmy Award-winning producer Mary Richards's career began inauspiciously in 1975, when she was hired as the production secretary on the World War II drama "Operation: Daybreak," but Richards worked her way up and by the 1980s was landing work as a production manager. Not long after she worked as production supervisor on the Oscar-nominated Richard Curtis/Mike Newell romantic dramedy, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," she earned her first producer credit on the 1995 adaptation of Shakespeare's "Richard III," which starred acclaimed British actor Ian McKellen. In 1999 she re-teamed with Curtis, working as a line producer on his starlet-meets-boy comedy, "Notting Hill." Then, in 2000, she was one of a number of talented producers who helped bring together Steven Spielberg's widely lauded World War II miniseries, "Band of Brothers." It was for her part in its production that Richards garnered an Emmy win in 2002. Since then, she has focused on film production, where she has helped create small-budget dramas like the concentration camp thriller "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and big-budget spectacles like Tim Burton's CGI-packed "Alice in Wonderland" adaptation.