Norman J. Grossfeld

The man behind the wildly successful "Pokémon" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" crazes of the late 1990s and 2000s, Norman J. Grossfeld found major success throughout his career as a children's entertainment producer, writer, and director. As the president of 4Kids Productions, a subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment, he made millions off of "Pokémon," producing the English version of the show's hit eight seasons. Concerning the quest for 150 Pokémon, or "pocket monsters," the series and related merchandise took the children's market by storm when it launched in 1998, spawning video games, trading cards, toys, and just about anything else that can be marketed to kids. The franchise also spawned multiple films, which Grossfeld either wrote or produced. Prior to this wild success, Grossfeld was something of a wunderkind, having worked at NBC Sports as a coordinating director and serving as president of the production company Gold Coast Television Entertainment in 1992 at the tender age of 29. After "Pokémon" blew up, he went on to produce six seasons of a similar series named "Yu-Gi-Oh!," which followed a young boy and a 3000-year-old Pharaoh's mission to uncover the latter's lost memories. This also hit big, again spawning films, trading cards, and another children's empire. Since then, Grossfeld focused on producing the re-boot of the famed 1980s franchise, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."