tomcat edited the summary of Ben Mezrich Friday, May 23, 2008.
- Ben Mezrich is an American author from Boston, Massachusetts, who started out writing fiction and later expanded into non-fiction. He graduated magna-cum-laude from Harvard in 1991. Mezrich attended Princeton Day School, in Princeton, New Jersey.
Ben Mezrich is the author of ten books, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The True Story of Six M.I.T. Kids Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent fifty-nine weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, and sold over 1.5 million copies in twelve languages. His latest book, Rigged, also a best-seller, is currently available in hardcover.
Ben Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.
While writing these true stories, he has been afforded access to worlds seldom talked about. During his research for Bringing Down the House, he taped $250,000 to his body and smuggled it through airport security with some of the most notorious card-counters in the world, getting to taste the lifestyle of the Las Vegas high roller upon arrival. While writing Ugly Americans he visited exclusive 'Japanese Only' underground sex clubs in Tokyo and juggled road blocks and run-ins against the Japanese mafia.
Now, Mezrich is Hollywood's next big thing. Having been named People Magazine's "Sexiest Author", Kevin Spacey is producing and starring in a Sony production of Mezrich's NY Times best selling book, Bringing Down the House, titled 21 (out Spring ’08) and DreamWorks has optioned Ugly Americans (also a NY Times Best Seller) for a future screen project. Mezrich's second book, Reaper, was made into the TV movie Fatal Error back in 2000, and that same year he also wrote a stand-alone thriller for the TV show The X-Files. The film rights to his latest book, Rigged, have already been sold.
Mezrich has appeared on TV as well, having a brief stint on Court TV with a series titled “High Stakes with Ben Mezrich,” the show utilized his unique contacts to explore the culture of young, highly educated millionaires and their clandestine hobbies. Mezrich also hosted the World Series of Blackjack for GSN and has several scripted and non-scripted TV projects in the works. Mezrich is a columnist for Boston Common and a contributor for Flush Magazine in the UK.
He has also has written under the pseudonym Holden Scott.
Contact the Author
ben@benmezrich.com
Public Relations
barry@benmezrich.com
Speaking Engagements
speakers@caa.com
He also has a page at Myspace.
Books he wrote:
Fiction
1996 - Threshold
1998 - Reaper
1999 - Fertile Ground
2000 - Skin (a story set as an X-Files episode)
2000 - Skeptic (written under the pen name Holden Scott)
2001 - The Carrier (written under the pen name Holden Scott)
Non-fiction
2002 - Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
2004 - Ugly Americans : The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions
2005 - Busting Vegas : The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees
2007 - Rigged : The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, From Wall Street to Dubai
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