University of Southern California & Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Brion Hambel is an independent producer who recently moved to North Carolina after twenty years in Los Angeles, California.
After graduating from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with his Master of Science in Accountancy, Brion went on to receive his CPA certification and began working for Arthur Andersen both in Charlotte and New York City. After three years with Arthur Andersen, he went to work for Bertelsmann Music Group and MTV Networks.
With a combined six years of public accounting and finance under his belt, he moved to Los Angeles to attend the Peter Stark Producing Graduate Program at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television where he graduated top of his class and received his Master of Fine Arts in Motion Picture Producing.
Brion began his career by working steadily on various motion pictures; he was Executive Producer and Line Producer on Small Town Saturday Night starring Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Co-Producer on Branson, an independent documentary produced by Jack Black’s production company, Electric Dynamite. He has also been the Production Manager on the several feature films, such as The Open Road and Visioneers.
Soon after, Brion produced Natural Selection, written and directed by Robbie Pickering. Natural Selection was the winner of seven awards at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival (including the Grand Jury and Audience Awards) and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards (“Best First Feature” for Robbie, Brion and Paul Jensen and “Best Female Lead” for Rachael Harris).
His next feature, Scenic Route, premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. A dramatic survival thriller directed by The Goetz Brothers and written by Kyle Killen (The Beaver), Scenic Route stars Josh Duhamel (Transformers) and Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts). It was picked up by Vertical Entertainment and hit theaters later that year.
Better Watch Out, a darkly comedic Christmas horror, premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2016 and was picked up by Well Go Entertainment and Universal Pictures International. It was released in theaters in 2017. Tone-Deaf, written and directed by Ricky Bates, premiered at SXSW in March 2019 and was picked up by Saban Films for theatrical distribution.
His latest producorial effort, Boys (a family-friendly kaiju fantasy adventure that mixes live action with anime and tokusatsu), was picked up by Shout! Factory and was released in October 2022.
Brion recently taught Producing at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC before starting at Wake Forest University in the fall of 2025.
He continues to seek out smart, character-driven material to produce with diverse filmmakers, is currently in development on several features and TV series, and plans to start a horror film fund in the Piedmont area.
Brion worked at a mom-and-pop video store growing up. He is also an Eagle Scout and a horrible golfer.