Biography of Eric Hayashi
Producer

A veteran entertainment industry professional, Eric Hayashi currently advises and manages arts and entertainment organizations from Kansas to California. He has substantial fund-raising, marketing, fund and business development experience. He is also an owner of United Producers Entertainment, Inc., a firm producing feature films, documentaries and live theatre and music concerts.

Hayashi served as the Executive Director of the Film Arts Foundation, a national service organization in San Francisco, that assisted independent filmmakers of all genres develop, fund and distribute their projects.

Hayashi is one of the producers of the new American feature motion picture, Only The Brave by writer-director, Lane Nishikawa. Shot on location and at Universal Studios, Nishikawa’s original story is based on the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team’s rescue of the “Lost Battalion”, members of the Texas 141st Regiment of the U.S. Army during WW II.The picture has screened in more than 17 film festivals throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Only The Brave is receiving its domestic distribution in Fall 2009.

He produced and directed Lane Nishikawa’s stage play, I’m On A Mission From Buddha, and was the script consultant for its adaptation into a nationally broadcast television special. He line-produced Forgotten Valor, Nishikawa’s short feature, , which was distributed to the U. S. educational market. He has been the dramaturgical producer and creative developer for scores of new and original stage plays.

Hayashi served as a board director for the Western States Arts Federation, a regional arts funding and service organization, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Association of American Cultures and California Lawyers for the Arts.

He has been an executive director or chief executive with the Kansas Arts Commission a state agency, the National Endowment for the Arts Theater Program in Washington D.C., the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, a major presenter of international work, the Institute for Teledramatic Arts & Technology, a film/television/radio/theater department at California State University Monterey.

A founding member of the Asian American Theater Company, Eric Hayashi worked in multiple capacities for the seminal repertory company leaving as its artistic director and producer. Under his tenure he developed the work of a number of artists including David Henry Hwang, Philip Kan Gotanda, Chicano Secret Service, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors and Culture Clash.

Hayashi holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Film/Creative Arts from San Francisco State University.