Michael Tollin is an American film and television producer/director who served as executive producer of the Emmy award-winning The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. The series received rave reviews[1] and set numerous ratings records, being seen by nearly 15 million viewers per episode on ESPN and many million more on Netflix around the world.
Tollin directed and/or produced documentaries, including The Comedy Store Documentary, Let Me Be Brave, Morningside Five, Iverson, Kareem: Minority of One, and Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?. He is currently the co-chairman of Mandalay Sports Media.[3]
Early life and education
Michael Tollin grew up in Havertown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.[4] His father, Sol Tollin (1929–2006), played basketball and baseball for Haverford College from 1947 to 1951. Tollin has a passion for sports and remains fiercely loyal to his Philadelphia teams.[5] Both Tollin and his father were inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.[6][7]
After graduating from Stanford, Tollin's first job was producer/writer for a syndicated series of sports documentaries called Greatest Sports Legends.[10] Within one year of his arrival, Tollin began directing the series. He went on to work with MLB Productions in New York and was one of the creators of an Emmy Award-winning series called The Baseball Bunch.[11]
In 1980, he was the screenwriter of the official World Series film [clarification needed] in which his favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies, defeated the Kansas City Royals in six games. His script was narrated by Vin Scully.[12]
In 1982, Tollin formed his own company, Halcyon Days Productions, and was awarded exclusive rights to the United States Football League, a spring pro football league which played from 1983 through 1985.[13] Tollin later directed the ESPN30 for 30 film, "Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?" in which he and others associated with the USFL, notably former New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump, offered a retrospective on the league (the title came from a quote from Trump). In addition to its work on the USFL, Halcyon Days Productions also produced sports documentaries, children's shows and entertainment specials.[11]
After the fall of the USFL, he moved to California and joined Brian Robbins to found Tollin/Robbins Productions.[11] In 1993, the duo produced their first documentary together Hardwood Dreams, which won the Crystal Heart award at the 1993 Heartland Film Festival.[14]
Over the next 15 years Tollin and Robbins teamed up to direct and produce more than a dozen feature films, award-winning documentaries and hundreds of hours of television. Some of Tollin/Robbins highlights include the filmsVarsity Blues, Coach Carter, Radio, Dreamer, Wild Hogs and Hardball; the television series Smallville, Arli$$ and One Tree Hill; as well as several award-winning documentaries, including Academy Award nominated Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, which Tollin wrote, produced and directed.[11] In 2007, Robbins and Tollin decided to amicably split up the partnership both citing a desire to work on their own passion projects.[15]
In 2012, Tollin partnered with Mandalay Entertainment chairman and CEO Peter Guber to form Mandalay Sports Media.[16] MSM is a media and production company, the focus of which is sports entertainment programming for all media platforms.[17] The company's portfolio runs the gamut from sports movies to scripted and unscripted series, documentaries, web series and branded content.[16]
Tollin is the executive producer of The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. MSM/Tollin have also produced the motion pictures Chuck and The Zookeeper's Wife; the documentaries Iverson, Kareem: Minority of One, Fastball, Morningside 5, CounterPunch, The Franchise, and the Katy Perry Superbowl Halftime Special; and the TV series/specials Sin City Saints, Wedding Band, Summer Dreams, Every Street United, and Bluegrass Kingdom.[citation needed]
Filmography
Executive producer
TV series
2022: The Captain (TV miniseries) (executive producer, 7 episodes)[18]
