Gary Alazraki
Gaz Alazraki is the writer and director of Mexico's record breaking comedy Nosotros los Nobles (2013) and the Co-Creator, Executive Producer and Director of Club de Cuervos (2015) - Netflix's first original series in Spanish. He heads Alazraki Entertainment, a Mexico City based production company focused on High Quality Entertainment for general audiences in Latin America and Hispanic USA.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Gary "Gaz" Alazraki went to the American School Foundation in Mexico City. He studied a year in Boston and did the second half of his college education in USC. His grandfather was prominent Mexican Filmmaker Benito Alazraki and his father Carlos Alazraki Grossman went on to work in Television for many years before he opened his own advertising agency; Alazraki and Associates Advertising - on 1977, the year Gary was born.
He began his studies of Communications in the Iberoamerican University, but after going on to take the 8 week summer program in New York Film Academy he transferred to The School of Cinema in USC to pursuit a career in Film and Television.
Gaz chose to acquire On Set experience by working on big productions from the advertising industry while doing short films on the side. He worked as Assistant Director for Filmmaker and Commercial Director Alejandro González Padilla where he got his first break directing commercials for Blue Chip Companies in Mexico.
In 2004, he opened his own production company - Agave Shots, in partnership with Pitipol Ybarra and under the mentorship of Simón Bross, where they continued directing commercials for the advertising industry.
In that year he directed Volver, volver (2005), his first important short film which caught the interest of upcoming local stars Jaime Camil, Martha Higareda, Tony Dalton and Oscar nominated and Palme D'Or winner Guillermo Arriaga who invited Gaz to direct La hora cero (2008) a short film he was producing for Terra Films; a project Lucas Akoskin put together. It was part of an experiment where Arriaga wanted to see how different directors direct the same 6 pages he wrote.
In 2008, Gaz and Pitipol closed Agave Shots and Gaz began working on the screenplay for Nosotros los Nobles (2013). In March, 2013 the film was released with distribution by Warner Bros.
With 650 prints, Nosotros los Nobles (2013) was the biggest release for a Mexican movie in history. Nobles doubled the record for highest grossing Mexican film in History - with 7.2 million viewers and $340 million pesos in Box Office Sales.- After El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002) held the top position for 11 years.
It also became the 16th highest grossing film in history of all films played in Mexican territory and stayed in the top 10 charts for 17 weeks, won Best Movie by iTunes Store Mexico, and took the highest grossing home video sales in Mexican History -outperforming Hollywood Films.
Gaz teamed up again with Luis Gerardo Méndez on Club de Cuervos (2015), an original idea he Co-Created with Michael Lam. Netflix bought the pitch in 2014 with the idea of making their first Spanish speaking, original series produced in Mexico for the world. The first season runs 13 episodes long, 12 of which Gaz directed and edited.