Biography
An award-winning producing veteran, distinguished across a range of content platforms, Simon Fields served from 2003 to March 2013 as President, in partnership with Jennifer Lopez, at Nuyorican Productions. The partnership in the Los Angeles-based film and television production company began as a result of their successful collaboration on the film "Shall We Dance," which grossed over $200 million worldwide.
Fields, a native of London, received his education at Stowe School. After graduation he worked his way through the television commercial production ranks in London to become Production Manager for the Moving Picture Company. In 1980, Fields became a producer for Jon Roseman Productions and moved to L.A. within a year to run its U.S. division.
In 1981 he co-founded Limelight, a company focused on music video, commercial, and feature film production, with operations in Los Angeles and London. As President and CEO, Fields - along with Co-President Steve Barron - led the growth of the company to annual revenues of over $150 million, overseeing an award-winning television commercial division whose accounts included Calvin Klein, Nike, and Budweiser, as well as producing the hit feature film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Under Fields' leadership, Limelight became distinguished as a leader in music video production, garnering numerous awards for innovative projects with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Peter Gabriel, A-ha, David Bowie and myriad others.
Toward the end of his tenure with Limelight, Fields teamed with director Peter Chelsom in developing and producing feature films. Together, they shepherded the romantic comedy "Hear my Song," the Buena Vista distributed "Funny Bones" starring Oliver Platt and Jerry Lewis (which earned Fields and Chelsom a London Critics Circle film award for British producer of the year), "Serendipity" starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, and Miramax's hugely successful romantic comedy "Shall We Dance," starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Jennifer Lopez.
Through Nuyorican, Fields has produced several feature films and served as executive producer on many television productions. He has produced, with Nuyorican, the crime drama "Bordertown" starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas, the Picture House release of "El Cantante," the story of salsa pioneer Hector Lavoe, starring Lopez and Marc Anthony, and the Sony Pictures release of "Feel the Noise," a drama set in New York & Puerto Rico. The company has also produced "Dancelife," a dance competition reality series for MTV, and "South Beach," an edgy series set in South Beach about a young man's rites of passage. Fields also developed and served as Executive Producer on the ABC Family scripted show "The Fosters," which premiered in June 2013. In addition to a prolific development slate with scripted projects at Fox, ABC, and CBS, Nuyorican, under Fields' tenure, also boasts a fast growing non-scripted/reality division, and is in production on "South Beach Tow's" third season. Fields, under his new production banner, Fields Entertainment, is currently in production on the second season of "The Carbonaro Effect" for TruTV. Fields is also in pre-production on the motion picture "Blowback," in partnership with Shine Pictures.
