Bryan Fogel Wiki: Director, Net Worth, 'Icarus' & Facts To Know

Bryan Fogel is an American film director, author, producer and playwright who shot to fame with his film, Jewtopia and his doping documentary, Icarus. Fogel was born in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from East High School and later from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Fogel started with stand-up comedy and acting, initially in Hollywood. He also appeared in a small role in the 2009 Disney movie, 'Race to Witch Mountain'. 'Race to Witch Mountain' is a 2009 American science fiction adventure thriller film and a remake of the 1975 Disney film, 'Escape to Witch Mountain'. Fogel then came up with a script that would later become one of the greatest hits of his career. He developed, co-wrote and also starred in the play Jewtopia which was an off-Broadway comedy about the dating lives of two young men seeking Jewish women, which was made into a feature film. The play was initially shown in Los Angeles in 2003 and it was huge success making it run for 300 performances. In 2004, the play Jewtopia moved to the off-Broadway Westside Theater in New York and there too, it ran for more than 3 years and over a thousand performances. The play finally closed in 2007 and it set the record of being one of the longest-running and fastest-recouping productions in Off-Broadway history. Next came, Fogel's book, 'Jewtopia: The Chosen Book for the Chosen People'. It was co-authored by Fogel along with Sam Wolfson. The book, 'Jewtopia: The Chosen Book for the Chosen People' was published and Fogel later made an appearance on ABC's 'The View' in support of his book. Fogel later tried his hands at directing. He directed, co-wrote and even produced the feature film, Jewtopia, which was an adaptation of the original play. The film was released in 2013. The film was premiered at the 13th Newport Beach International Film Festival as the opening night gala. The film won the audience choice award of the 2012 Malibu International Film Festival. Next came Fogel's Icarus. The film earned rave reviews worldwide, opened everyone's eyes to a largely secretive occurrence in Olympics. While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, Fogel connected with Russian Scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov. He was a pillar of his country’s Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program Fogel and Rodchenkov made headlines when they revealed the major doping in sports in the BNew York Times in May, 2016. They alleged that Russia had been involved in sports fraud since decades. Their fraud was state sponsored and conspired to cheat the Olympics since decades including the 2014 Sochi Olympics where Rodchenkov, with the help of the Federal Security Service changing steroid-tainted urine of the Russian national team to evade positive detection. Fogel worked on his story for 3.5 years along with producer Dan Cogan. This story was the foundation of his feature film, Icarus. Icarus was premiered at the 2017 Sundance Festival where it won the Special Jury 'Orwell Award' and also the Audience Choice Award. The film was acquired in a historic $5 million sale to Netflix and released worldwide on Netflix on August 4th, 2017. Fogel's efforts paid off when in December, 2017, the entire Russian national team was banned from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics which will take place in South Korea. Fogel, apart from Russians deceiving in Olympics, also raised the issue of Russian tampering in global affairs and he met to discuss the same issue in August, 2017 with the members of the US Congress and Senate. Icarus was nominated for Oscar 2018 as the Best Documentary Feature Film. The Oscar 2018 will be held on March 4, 2018.

Bryan Fogel has a net worth of $9 million.

Director Bryan Fogel is also a cyclist and when he headed to the Haute Route jacked up on steroids, it was just to plunge deeper into how athletes are able to cheat the testing labs. From self-experimentation on wheels all the way to Haute Route, the cyclist’s film unexpectedly shook the rampant fraud practices in the Olympic history. Never had he imagined to gain such triumph from his experiment. “It was not at all the film I set out to make at the beginning,” Fogel told in an interview. Fogel has been cycling since he was 13. Fogel said that the film’s genesis lay “not so much in cycling’s past and whether guys today are still using drugs, but because it was the sport that I knew, loved and followed." “I grew up racing with the guys who became the top Americans. It was my vehicle of how to tell this larger story.” He broke records when his film sold to Netflix for a staggering $5 million which has been the biggest as yet for a documentary film. The actor has struggled a lot in order to get into the acting world. He co-wrote the stage play, 'Jewtopia' and it became a surprise hit. Since then, there has been no looking back for the director. After the initial craze for 'Jewtopia' haulted, Fogel came to be known only as 'the Jewtopia guy' and nothing else came up his way for long. "There was nothing coming at me that was exciting," Fogel told in an interview. "In a way, I would call it director's jail." Then, the idea of 'Icarus' struck him and the rest is history.

Do watch the film 'Icarus' and become aware of the fraudulent practices happening in the sports world.