Col Needham

English entrepreneur

Col Needham

Needham in 2002

Born|  (1967-01-26) 26 January 1967 (age 56)

Denton, Lancashire, England

Alma mater| University of Leeds (BSc)
Occupation(s)| Founder, CEO, and general manager of IMDb
Spouse|

Karen (nee Gaskin) Needham

(m. 1989)​

Children| 2

Colin Needham (born 26 January 1967)[1] is a British computer engineer who is known as the founder and CEO of IMDb.[2] He has been general manager of IMDb since its acquisition by Amazon in 1998.[3][4]

## Early life[edit]

Needham was born in Denton, Lancashire,[1] and grew up on Stockport Road. He attended Audenshaw School and Clarendon Sixth Form College in Hyde. He graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 1988.[5]

## Career[edit]

IMDb was started in 1990 while Needham was working as an engineer in Bristol at Hewlett-Packard (HP).[1] The site evolved from what was initially his personal movie database, which became an internet bulletin board made from simple records, kept on a succession of early computers and contributed to by several persons, all of whom Needham outlasted.

By the summer of 1996, thanks to IMDb's first film-related advertising campaign (for Independence Day), Needham had quit HP to work on IMDb full-time as a paid employee.[6][7] In 1999, he collected two Webby Awards for IMDb.[8] In February 2017, Needham decided to remove the message boards from IMDb, stating that the message boards "are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide".[9]

## Personal life[edit]

Needham married Karen Gaskin in 1989. They have twin daughters and live in Filton, Gloucestershire. He is a fan of early 20th-century classical Russian composers, particularly Dmitri Shostakovich.[1][10]

Needham has recently stated that he has seen 14939 unique movies since starting IMDB in January 1980. He has plans to hit 15000 movies by summer 2023.

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Siklos, Richard (28 May 2006). "From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
2. ^ "Col Needham Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
3. ^ Col Needham at IMDb
4. ^ Shoard, Catherine (12 May 2013). "Six degrees of IMDb founder Col Needham This man has seen 8,524 movies. How does he know? Because he invented the Internet Movie Database – the indispensable cinema encyclopaedia – and put Bristol on Hollywood's map". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013.
5. ^ Glendinning, Amy. "I am IMDb: The millionaire film geek from Denton behind the world's top movie website". Retrieved 26 October 2014.
6. ^ Finke, Nikki (5 August 2004). "Do You IMDb?". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
7. ^ "Col Needham's user profile – Internet Movie Database". IMDb. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
8. ^ "3rd Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners". Webby Awards. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
9. ^ "IMDb shuts down its message boards".
10. ^ "Biography for Col Needham". IMDb. May 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.

## External links[edit]

* Col Needham at IMDb
* Col Needham interview – The Open Mind, 21 February 2015

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Col Needham.
*[m.]: married