Albie Hecht
Birthdate: Jun 21, 1953
Birthplace: Ukiah, California
Albie Hecht is a veteran television executive best known for his work with Viacom and Nickelodeon, creating several shows geared for young audiences and developing hit shows like SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present) and Dora the Explorer (2000-2019), as well as launching MTV Networks’ Spike TV.
Hecht translated his creative participation in these TV projects into their feature film versions with Nickelodeon Movies, first as producer of The Rugrats Movie (1998), co-directed by Norton Virgien and Igor Kovalyov and grossing a potent $140.8 million (on $24 million expenses), making it the first non-Disney animated movie to gross more than $100 million in the U.S. domestic box office.
Hecht was a producer on Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures’ Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), directed, co-written, and co-produced by John A. Davis, earning a solid $103 million and nominated for the Oscars’ inaugural Best Animated Feature award. Hecht was then producer on Nickelodeon Movies’ Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), directed by Brad Silberberg and starring Jim Carrey, but grossing a disappointing $211.5 million global gross against $142 million costs for co-distributors Paramount Pictures (in North America) and DreamWorks Pictures (ex-North America).
Albie Hecht was a producer on Nickelodeon Movies’ animated feature hit, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), directed by the show’s creator, Stephen Hillenburg (who also wrote the story, co-wrote the screenplay, and co-produced), and which grossed an excellent $141 million (against $30 million costs). Hecht was the producer of director-writer Sean Fine’s and Andrea Nix’s documentary about three children in a Ugandan displacement camp, War Dance (2007), premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and released by ThinkFilm, and nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
Hecht served as lead producer on the live-action/animated documentary, 1 Way Up: The Story of Peckham BMX (2014), directed and co-produced by Amy Mathieson, and then Hecht was a co-producer on Tre Maison Dasan (2018), the indie documentary by Tre Janson, Maison Teixeira, Dasan Lopes, and Denali Tiller, and which premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival. Hecht continued producing in the indie non-fiction field with director/co-writer Taimi Arvidson’s documentary, This Small Place (2023), about the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Albie Hecht made his feature directorial debut with the U.S./Japan co-production, Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure (2024), the animated/live-action version of the YouTube channel hit, Ryan’s World, starring Ryan Kaji and written by Rose Frankel and produced by Sunlight Entertainment/PocketWatch/Shin-Ei Animation.
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Personal Details
Albie Hecht was born in Ukiah, California, and was raised in Ukiah and the New York City borough of Queens, by his parents. Hecht attended and graduated from Frances Lewis High School in Queens, where he was elected as student president. Hecht graduated from Columbia University’s Columbia College with a BA in Media Studies. Hecht married university professor Susan MacLaury; the couple has two children.
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- 2024 | Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe AdventureasDelivery Guy
Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure
Ryan's twin sisters Emma and Kate get trapped in a comic book world. Ryan enters this realm to rescue them, facing adventures, battles, and mishaps while attempting to bring them back before his parents discover their disappearance.
Some Facts About Albie Hecht
Changes: Albie Hecht has commented that “after I left Viacom, I really wanted to focus on things that were hand-crafted and personal for me, having gone through 14 years of corporate life.”