Eric Abraham is a film, television and theatre producer. He is best known for producing the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning film KOLYA (Best Foreign Language Film 1996).
South African born, a former journalist and BBC Radio correspondent in South Africa, a former human rights activist banned and house-arrested by the apartheid government in 1976 and exiled for 15 years, he then became a producer of BBC TV’s PANORAMA programme. He went on to produce many acclaimed television dramas including John le Carré’s A MURDER OF QUALITY starring Denholm Elliott and Glenda Jackson and the peak-time BBC TV crime series DALZIEL & PASCOE, based on Reginald Hill’s bestselling crime novels, and starring Warren Clarke. He produced Roald Dahl’s DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD, a highly acclaimed family film which starred Jeremy Irons, Robbie Coltrane, Jimmy Nail and a host of other British stars. Other films include Jiří Menzel’s THE LIFE AND EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF PRIVATE IVAN CHONKIN, Tim Roth’s THE WAR ZONE, Jez Butterworth’s MOJO and BIRTHDAY GIRL, Jan Svěrák's DARK BLUE WORLD and EMPTIES, which has been the biggest Czech box office hit in history, QUIET CHAOS starring Nanni Moretti, Jan Sverak’s latest film KOOKY, and Joshua Marston’s THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD.
In 2005 he and his wife, philanthropist and anthropologist Sigrid Rausing, founded Portobello Books with the former publisher of the HarperCollins imprint Flamingo – Philip Gwyn Jones – and later that year they acquired the highly regarded literary journal Granta and Granta Books.
2005 also marked his West End debut, as a producer of Hugh Whitemore’s adaptation of Pirandello’s AS YOU DESIRE ME starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Bob Hoskins and directed by Jonathan Kent.
In 2006, with his theatre company Portobello Productions, Eric Abraham produced his first solo West End production, EMBERS, a new play he commissioned from Christopher Hampton based on the bestselling novel by Sándor Márai. EMBERS marked Jeremy Irons’ return to the stage after twenty years and was directed by the Tony award-winning Michael Blakemore. He has commissioned new plays from, amongst others, Nicholas Wright, Hugh Whitemore, Frank McGuinness and Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Alongside Portobello Books and Portobello Productions, Eric Abraham’s film production company Portobello Pictures is developing a slate of film and television projects including a screenplay by Christopher Hampton based on the novel EMBERS and a major motion picture based on Jung Chang’s international bestseller WILD SWANS. In 2006 he set up a new collaboration with Golden Bear award-winning director Mark Dornford-May (U-CARMEN EKHAYELITSHA) to produce film and theatre projects focused on South African talent for South African and international audiences. Their first productions together were THE MAGIC FLUTE - IMPEMPE YOMLINGO and A CHRISTMAS CAROL - IKRISMAS KHEROL. They premiered in Cape Town at the Baxter Theatre and at the Young Vic in London to major acclaim, with THE MAGIC FLUTE - IMPEMPE YOMLINGO transferring to the Duke of York’s theatre for a successful West End run and winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival 2008. His most recent theatrical venture was Polly Stenham’s multi-award winning THAT FACE.
Eric Abraham is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the European and Czech Film Academies.
Eric Abraham's experiences as a journalist in apartheid South Africa are documented in the radio documentary BETRAYAL.