Vin Di Bona

Vincent John "Vin" Di Bona (born April 10, 1944) is an American television producer of the television shows MacGyver, Entertainment Tonight, America's Funniest Home Videos and Dancing with the Stars. He runs an eponymous production company called Vin Di Bona Productions. In 2010, Di Bona launched a second business, FishBowl Worldwide Media, an independent production company developing properties for film, television, digital platforms and brands. Early life A native of Cranston, Rhode Island, Di Bona began his career in the entertainment industry as a singer, under the stage name Johnny Lindy (the last name was taken from the Cranston area restaurant owned by his parents and where Di Bona worked as a pre-teen); releasing two records by the age of 16, which became hits regionally. However Di Bona turned his aspirations to making film and television in 1962, later saying "Guys who sang romantic ballads were up a creek without a paddle. So I adapted." Personal life In 2006, Di Bona married Erica Gerard, a television production executive he had known from his days at CBS. He has a daughter, Cara Di Bona Swartz and a step-daughter, Jamie Goldstein. Education He received an education at Emerson College in Boston, where he served as manager of WECB, the campus radio station. Di Bona met his first wife, Gina, with whom he has a daughter, Cara. After graduating from Emerson in 1966 and earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in film at UCLA, he worked for nine years at Boston's WBZ-TV (channel 4).