Evan Hayes is an Academy Award, BAFTA, and Emmy Award–winning producer currently serving as an Executive Director and the Head of Film & Television at Unreasonable Studios/ACE, a global creative production company working across premium entertainment, branded content, and large-scale production services.

Hayes has built and led international film and television portfolios spanning studio features, independent films, streaming originals, and documentaries. His work also bridges creative excellence and commercial strategy by pairing original storytelling with global brand partnerships including Louis Vuitton, Coca-Cola, Nike, Marriott, Starbucks, Google, Carhartt, Hoka, The North Face, NBC Sports and Patagonia.

Hayes’s most recent film The Truth & Tragedy of Moriah Wilson was commissioned by Netflix and became the platform’s #3 most streamed film globally in its first week of release and the film attained #1 status in over 15 key markets including in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany & Australia.

Hayes’s upcoming projects include Sail directed by Frank Marshall for Skydance & IMAX chronicling the 37th America’s Cup, the ultra-running documentary Learning to Fly, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, and the scripted film Bartali to be directed by Jimmy Chin and starring Miles Teller & Annette Bening. Other recent credits include the adventure thriller Buried, which was a Netflix Top 10 film, the scripted series Maggie for Hulu, Liz Garbus’ BAFTA-nominated Becoming Cousteau, Stacy Peralta’s surf epic The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez made in partnership with Patagonia Films, as well as Dawn Porter’s award-winning film The Way I See It about Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza, for Focus Features.

In 2019, Hayes won an Oscar for producing Free Solo, directed by Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin for National Geographic Films. The film, which follows Alex Honnold’s historic free solo climb of El Capitan, became a global phenomenon and earned widespread recognition for its breathtaking cinematography and gripping storytelling. In addition to winning an Academy Award, the film also won a BAFTA, four Critics Choice Awards, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards, among others.

Before joining UNR/ACE, Hayes served as President of Parkes+MacDonald/Image Nation, where he oversaw all film & television projects including Men in Black: International for Sony Pictures, Rings for Paramount Pictures, The Circle starring Tom Hanks & Emma Watson, and He Named Me Malala directed by Academy Award-winner Davis Guggenheim. Prior to that, Hayes served as President of Story Mining & Supply Co. where he oversaw the Starz original series Outlander as well as the feature film The Yellow Birds.

Earlier, during an eleven-year tenure at Working Title Films, he contributed to one of the most successful production runs in modern cinema, working on acclaimed films including Everest, Rush, Les Miserables, Contraband, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Paul, Green Zone, A Serious Man, State of Play, Frost/Nixon, Burn After Reading, Definitely Maybe, Love Actually, Atonement, Hot Fuzz, Smokin’ Aces, United 93, and Senna. Prior to joining Working Title, Hayes worked for producer Philip Steuer (Narnia, Oz: Great & Powerful) and in Paramount Pictures’ Financial Planning and Creative Affairs departments.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Hayes is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is a member of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, the Producer’s Guild of America, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.