Bill Simmons
American sports analyst, author, podcaster, and former sports writer. Founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer.
Works
Celtics City
Containing extensive, never-before-seen archives and more than 80 interviews of past and present Boston Celtics legends, this series chronicles the history, cultural impact, and extraordinary tale of the NBA's winningest and most storied franchise, the Boston Celtics,
Release Date: 2025-03-03
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Episode Count: 9
Music Box: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary
This documentary chronicles the rise, fall, and rise again of the soft rock epitomized by artists such as Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, and Toto in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Retroactively dubbed "Yacht Rock," the easy-listening genre came to be gently mocked and even dismissed by rock lovers and critics. However, it has since reclaimed its place in music history and is celebrated in this groove-infused film.
Release Date: 2024-11-14
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 10
Mr. McMahon
WWE experienced record-breaking highs and crushing lows under Vince McMahon's leadership. This docuseries delves into the mogul's controversial reign.
Release Date: 2024-09-25
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Episode Count: 6
Vote Count: 61
Dinner Time Live with David Chang
Chef David Chang hosts an unfiltered dining experience as he cooks for celebrity guests and shares culinary secrets.
Release Date: 2024-01-25
Character: Self
Episode Count: 1
Vote Count: 3
Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey
An immersive documentary film featuring behind-the-scenes access to some of basketball’s future stars competing in the G League – the NBA's developmental league – as they try and achieve their lifelong dream of making it to the NBA.
Release Date: 2023-08-07
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 3
Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed
An exploration of the personal and creative struggles behind the music of four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell.
Release Date: 2023-04-07
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 5
DMX: Don't Try to Understand
A focus on a year in the life of rapper Earl “DMX” Simmons as he is released from prison in early 2019 and attempts to rebuild his career in the music industry and reconnect with family and fans.
Release Date: 2021-11-13
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 8
Mr. Saturday Night
The untold story of Robert Stigwood, the impresario behind “Saturday Night Fever” and its record-breaking disco soundtrack.
Release Date: 2021-11-13
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 7
Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss
An intimate and often eye-opening exploration of the life and all-too-short career of wunderkind rapper Juice WRLD.
Release Date: 2021-11-12
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 16
Jagged
An intimate exploration of Alanis Morissette and her groundbreaking 1995 album Jagged Little Pill.
Release Date: 2021-09-14
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 24
Listening to Kenny G
A humorous but incisive look at the saxophonist Kenny G, the best-selling instrumental artist of all time, and quite possibly one of the most famous living musicians.
Release Date: 2021-09-12
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 13
Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage
Explore Woodstock 99, a three-day music festival promoted to echo unity and counterculture idealism of the original 1969 concert but instead devolved into riots, looting and sexual assaults.
Release Date: 2021-07-23
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 87
F9
Dominic Toretto and his crew battle the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they've ever encountered: his forsaken brother.
Release Date: 2021-05-19
Character: Linder Pit Crew
Vote Count: 7285
Showbiz Kids
A documentary chronicling the shared experiences of prominent former child stars and the personal and professional price of fame and failure on a child.
Release Date: 2020-07-14
Department: Production
Job: Producer
Vote Count: 48
Basketball: A Love Story
'Basketball: A Love Story' is a series of 62 interconnected short stories that creates a vibrant mosaic of the game, featuring 165 exclusive interviews. The cast encompasses basketball's most prominent figures and explores the complex nature of love as it relates to the game.
Release Date: 2018-09-18
Character: Self
Episode Count: 20
Vote Count: 2
Andre the Giant
An ambitious and wide-ranging documentary exploring Andre’s upbringing in France, his celebrated career in WWE, and his forays in the entertainment world.
Release Date: 2018-04-10
Department: Production
Job: Producer
Vote Count: 144
The Rewatchables
'The Rewatchables,' a film podcast from the Ringer Podcast Network, features The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and a roundtable of people from the Ringer universe discussing movies they can’t seem to stop watching.
Release Date: 2017-08-07
Department: Crew
Job: Creator
Character: Self - Host
Episode Count: 29
Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons
Weekly talk show hosted by one of the most influential figures in sports media. Topics vary from sports to arts and everything in between.
Release Date: 2016-06-22
Character: Self
Episode Count: 16
Vote Count: 1
The Day The Series Stopped
On Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PT, soon after Al Michaels and Tim McCarver started the ABC telecast for Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, the ground began to shake beneath Candlestick Park. Even before that moment, this had promised to be a memorable matchup: the first in 33 years between teams from the same metropolitan area, a battle featuring larger-than-life characters and equally colorful fan bases. But after the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rolled through, bringing death and destruction, the Bay Area pulled together, and baseball took a backseat.
Release Date: 2014-10-12
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 14
Million Dollar Arm
In a last-ditch effort to save his career, sports agent JB Bernstein dreams up a wild game plan to find Major League Baseball’s next great pitcher from a pool of cricket players in India. He soon discovers two young men who can throw a fastball but know nothing about the game of baseball. Or America. It’s an incredible and touching journey that will change them all — especially JB, who learns valuable lessons about teamwork, commitment and family.
Release Date: 2014-05-09
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 618
Mysteries of the Jules Rimet Trophy
Starting with a Nazi plan to steal the Rimet Trophy from Italy during World War II, the story unfolds like a great caper film. Our hero, Ottorino Barassi, a mild-mannered Italian soccer official, tries to protect a valued treasure.
Release Date: 2014-05-06
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 2
Requiem for the Big East
The meteoric ascension of the Big East conference, and how in less than a decade, it became the most successful college basketball league in America.
Release Date: 2014-03-16
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 8
Blind Ref
A blind man struggles to become a basketball referee.
Release Date: 2013-06-06
Character: Announcers #1
Mr. Russell's House
Bill Simmons interviews NBA legend and 11-time Champion Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics on his illustrious career in both basketball and social activism
Release Date: 2013-02-18
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character:
Ghosts of Ole Miss
In the fall of 1962, a dramatic series of events made Civil Rights history and changed a way of life. On the eve of James Meredith becoming the first African-American to attend class at the University of Mississippi, the campus erupted into a night of rioting between those opposed to the integration of the school and those trying to enforce it. Before the rioting ended, the National Guard and Federal troops were called in to put an end to the violence and enforce Meredith's rights as an American citizen.
Release Date: 2012-10-30
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 8
There's No Place Like Home
On December 10, 2010, Sotheby's auctioned off what could be considered the most important historical document in sports history -- James Naismith's original rules of basketball. "There's No Place Like Home" is the story of one man's fanatical quest to win this seminal American artifact at auction and bring the rules "home" to Lawrence, Kansas, where Naismith coached and taught for over 40 years.
Release Date: 2012-10-16
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 9
Four Days in October
When the night of October 16, 2004 came to a merciful end, the Curse of the Bambino was alive and well. The vaunted Yankee lineup, led by A-Rod, Jeter, and Sheffield, had just extended their ALCS lead to three games to none, pounding out 19 runs against their hated rivals. The next night, in Game 4, the Yankees took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera, the best relief pitcher in postseason history, to secure yet another trip to the World Series. But after a walk and a hard-fought stolen base, the cold October winds of change began to blow. Over four consecutive days and nights, this unlikely group of Red Sox miraculously won four straight games to overcome the inevitability of their destiny. Major League Baseball Productions will produce a film in "real-time" that takes an in-depth look at the 96 hours that brought salvation to Red Sox Nation and made baseball history in the process.
Release Date: 2010-10-05
Character: Self
Vote Count: 18
One Night in Vegas
On the evening of Sept. 7, 1996, Mike Tyson, the WBC heavyweight champion, attempted to take Bruce Seldon’s WBA title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. At this point in his career, Tyson’s fights had become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, where the ever present hype of the professional boxing scene would come face to face with the worlds of big business, Hollywood, and hip hop. Sitting ringside was controversial rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur and Tyson were friends, a feeling of kinship linked them as each rose to stardom from poverty only to be thrown in prison. Following Tyson’s victory, Shakur and “Iron Mike” were to celebrate at an after party, but the rap star never arrived. Shakur was brutally gunned down later that night, and the scene in Las Vegas quickly turned from would-be celebratory revelry to ill fated and inopportune tragedy.
Release Date: 2010-09-07
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 10
Jordan Rides the Bus
In the fall of 1993, in his prime and at the summit of the sports world, Michael Jordan walked away from pro basketball. After leading the Dream Team to an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and taking the Bulls to their third consecutive NBA championship the following year, Jordan was jolted by the murder of his father. Was it the brutal loss of such an anchor in his life that caused the world’s most famous athlete to rekindle a childhood ambition by playing baseball? Or some feeling that he had nothing left to prove or conquer in basketball? Or something deeper and perhaps not yet understood?
Release Date: 2010-08-29
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 17
The 16th Man
Rugby Union has long been viewed in South Africa as a game for the white population, and the country’s success in the sport has been a true source of Afrikaner pride. When the 50-year-old policies and entrenched injustices of apartheid were finally overthrown in 1994, Nelson Mandela’s new government began rebuilding a nation badly in need of racial unity. So the world was watching when South Africa played host to the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Though they had only one non-white player, the South African Springboks gained supporters of all colors as they made an improbable run into the final match where they beat the heavily favored New Zealand team. When Mandela himself marched to the center of the pitch cloaked in a Springbok jersey and shook hands with the captain of the South African team, two nations became one. Oscar winner Morgan Freeman and director Cliff Bestall will tell the emotional story of that cornerstone moment and what it meant to South Africa’s healing process.
Release Date: 2010-05-04
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 14
No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
Director Steve James returns to his home town of Hampton, Virginia to tell the story of how the trial of a young basketball star left a city divided.
Release Date: 2010-04-13
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 24
Muhammad and Larry
In October of 1980 Muhammad Ali was preparing to fight for an unprecedented fourth heavyweight title against his friend and former sparring partner Larry Holmes. To say that the great Ali was in the twilight of his career would be generous; most of his admiring fans, friends and fight scribes considered his bravado delusional. What was left for him to prove? In the weeks of training before the fight, documentarians Albert and David Maysles took an intimate look at Ali trying to convince the world and perhaps himself, that he was still “The Greatest.” At the same time, they documented the mild-mannered and undervalued champion Holmes as he confidently prepared to put an end to the career of a man for whom he had an abiding and deep affection
Release Date: 2009-10-27
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 10
Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?
In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”
Release Date: 2009-10-20
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 20
The Band That Wouldn't Die
In late March of 1984, a moving company secretly packed up the Baltimore Colts’ belongings and its fleet of vans sneaked off in the darkness of the early morning. Leaving a city of deeply devoted fans in shock and disbelief. What caused owner Robert Irsay to turn his back on a town that was as closely linked to its team as any in the NFL? Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson, himself a long-standing Baltimore Colts fanatic, will probe that question in light of the changing relationship of sports to community. Through the eyes of members of the Colts Marching Band, Levinson will illustrate how a fan base copes with losing the team that it loves.
Release Date: 2009-10-13
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 14
30 for 30
30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This currently includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. This entry refers to the main Volumes of the series presented by ESPN
Release Date: 2009-10-06
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Vote Count: 35
Kings Ransom
On August 9, 1988, the NHL was forever changed with the single stroke of a pen. The Edmonton Oilers, fresh off their fourth Stanley Cup victory in five years, signed a deal that sent Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian national treasure and the greatest hockey player ever to play the game, to the Los Angeles Kings in a multi-player, multi-million dollar deal. As bewildered Oiler fans struggled to make sense of the unthinkable, fans in Los Angeles were rushing to purchase season tickets at a rate so fast it overwhelmed the Kings box office. Overnight, a franchise largely overlooked in its 21-year existence was suddenly playing to sellout crowds and standing ovations, and a league often relegated to “little brother” status exploded from 21 teams to 30 in less than a decade.
Release Date: 2009-09-13
Department: Production
Job: Executive Producer
Vote Count: 25