George Shapiro

George Shapiro is an American talent manager and multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winning television producer. He represented the late Andy Kaufman and is among the most successful managers in showbusiness. He currently represents Jerry Seinfeld.

Shapiro graduated from New York University. He then went to work in the mail room at the William Morris Agency in New York. He advanced rapidly within the company and soon became an agent. One of his first assignments was to accompany Elvis Presley during his appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Eventually, he began packaging hit programs such as "The Steve Allen Show" , "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas, and "Gomer Pyle" starring Jim Nabors. He also packaged a number of specials for Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing.

Shapiro later left the Morris Agency to become a personal manager and producer along with his partner and friend, Howard West. They formed Shapiro/West Productions and executive produced the Emmy, Peabody, and Golden Globe award winning series, "Seinfeld". Shapiro was Andy Kaufman's personal manager for many years, executive producing the comedian's special for Showtime entitled, "Andy Kaufman at Carnegie Hall" and one for ABC, "The Andy Kaufman Show". He also was executive producer with Howard West on the Universal feature film "Man on the Moon" starring Jim Carrey in the role of Andy Kaufman and had a cameo in the movie as Mr. Besserman.

He was portrayed in the Kaufman biopic, "Man on the Moon" by Danny DeVito. He also played a prominent role in the documentary "Comedian".

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