Sacha Gervasi

Alexander Simon "Sacha" Gervasi (born 1966) is a British director, screenwriter and former journalist.

Gervasi was born in London.

His mother, Milli Kosoy, was Canadian.

His father, Sean Gervasi, was an American economist who had worked as an economic advisor to President John F. Kennedy in the White House, was an expert in Yugoslav affairs and had taught at the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and at the University of Paris in Vincennes-Saint-Denis.

His uncle, Tom Gervasi, was an expert on intelligence matters and author of the Myth of Soviet Military Supremacy and the Arsenal of Democracy series.

His paternal grandfather was foreign correspondent and author Frank Gervasi and his paternal step-grandmother was singer Georgia Gibbs.

Gervasi was educated at Westminster School, and then read modern history at King's College London.

As a teenager in 1982, Gervasi befriended Canadian metal band Anvil when they toured London and became a roadie for the band on three tours, eventually becoming close friends until a falling out in 1986.

Gervasi first met Anvil on 21 September 1982 after a gig at The Marquee Club in London.

He introduced himself to the band as "England's number one Anvil fan".

He subsequently became a roadie for the band on their 1982, 1984 and 1985 tours, and was given the nickname "teabag" by the band.

After completing his degree, he subsequently worked for John Calder of the Samuel Beckett archive helping to arrange a vast sale of Beckett's personal papers at Sotheby's in 1989, including Beckett's own annotated version of Waiting for Godot, which sold to Trinity College Dublin.

Gervasi moved to Los Angeles in 1995 to attend the graduate screenwriting programme at UCLA Film School, where he twice won the BAFTA/LA scholarship.

While in the programme, he supported himself by working as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times, The Observer, and Punch.

From 1999 to 2000, he was the voice of Jaguar Cars on US radio and television.

Gervasi got his filmwriting start with The Big Tease, which he co-wrote with Craig Ferguson.

He went on to pen The Terminal, made into a 2004 film directed by Steven Spielberg.

According to London's The Daily Telegraph: "He is one of only two English screenwriters to have their scripts made into movies by Steven Spielberg. The other is Tom Stoppard [for Empire of the Sun]."

Other films for which he has written include Comrade Rockstar and How to Marry a Millionaire.

He wrote and executive produced Henry's Crime.

He reunited with Anvil after a break of 20 years, and started filming a documentary about them in November 2005.

The film premièred at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, and won Audience Awards at the 2008 Sydney Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival and Galway International Film Festival.

The film has received praise and high acclaim in many reviews, including a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Times called it "the greatest film ever made about rock and roll".

He was appointed the Hunter/Zakin screenwriting chair at UCLA and taught there in spring 2009.

In 2009, Gervasi presented Steven Zaillian with the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award.

Gervasi directed Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a documentary of the Canadian heavy metal band Anvil, who had then been together for over 30 years.

The film was named Best Documentary of 2009 at the Evening Standard British Film Awards in London.

Chris Martin of Coldplay, a fan of the film, presented Gervasi with the award.

In 2009, the Motion Picture Association of America opened the category of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10.

In October 2009, ''Anvil!

The Story of Anvil'' was the first screener to be sent out for considering of the expanded Best Picture category as well as for Best Documentary.

There was disappointment when Anvil was one of the higher-profile films not short-listed in the Best Documentary category.

The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010.

The film went on to win Best Documentary at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles and Best Music Film and Best Documentary Feature at the International Documentary Association Awards.

''Anvil!

The Story of Anvil'' won an Emmy Award in 2010 in the category of Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming.

Gervasi's first position was to work for the 18th Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Ted Hughes, at the Arvon Writing Foundation.

In September 2018, The Guardian ranked Anvil!

as the 7th best music documentary of all time.