Tim League

Tim League is an American entrepreneur and film producer based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain and the founder of Drafthouse Films, a film distribution company, where he produced The ABCs of Death and other films He is co-founder of Fantastic Fest, a film festival, Mondo, an entertainment merchandise company, and Neon, a film production and distribution company. Early life and education League graduated from Rice University in 1992 with degrees in mechanical engineering and art history. While at Rice, he was detained by campus police for interrupting a campus event while dressed as a banana. Career After a two-year stint at Shell Oil Company in Bakersfield, California, he left the engineering profession and opened up his first movie theater. An unmitigated financial disaster, the Tejon theater closed in 1995, and he loaded a truck with 200 seats, a projector, screen, and speakers, and relocated to Austin, Texas, where he launched Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, where he remained as CEO until 2020 when he was replaced by Shelli Taylor. He took up the new position as executive chairman of the board. Asked about his motivation to open a movie theater in 2012, League said, "What we set out to do in the very beginning was to make a movie theater by fans for fans. And we got into the business because we love movies and we got a little frustrated with our options as to what the movie theater experience was all about".