David Permut

"'Atropia,' 'Twinless' Win Top Sundance 2025 Awards (Full Winners List)". Variety. 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2026-10-03.

David Permut
Permut in 2025
Born	(1954-03-23) March 23, 1954 (age 72)[1][unreliable source?] New York City, New York, U.S.[1][unreliable source?]
Occupation	Film producer

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David A. Permut (born March 23, 1954) is an American film producer. He has worked on dozens of films, and has received both Academy and Emmy Award nominations.^[2][3]

Permut was born in New York City, New York to a Jewish family,^[4] the son of entrepreneur Lee Permut.^[5] His family moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles while he was a teen.^[6] While a youth, he sold maps to the Hollywood homes of the stars and later mixed with them at the Palm Springs Racquet Club and the Tennis Club, after his father purchased a second home in Palm Springs in the 1970s.^[5] He was introduced to producer Bill Sargent through family who helped him secure some casting calls.^[5][7] Permut then went to work as a gofer for Roger Corman while he was taking classes at UCLA and later accepted a job at an independent talent agency in Beverly Hills.^[5]

Early in his career, Permut produced the 1975 film Give 'em Hell, Harry!,^[7] which was his first producer credit.^[8] Shortly afterwards, he co-produced the 1979 comedy concert film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, which was considered one of the first major theatrical stand-up comedy films, with Bill Sargent.^[7][5] He went on to produce the 1987 films Dragnet and Blind Date. In 1986, he then signed a production agreement with United Artists, where he is planning on to produce films like an adaptation of the 1950s TV show Highway Patrol, but it never came to fruition.^[9] He later produced the John Woo film Face/Off.^[7]

In 1991, Permut signed a three-year first look development and production deal with New Line Cinema, which resulted in his production company, Permut Productions, becoming a subsidiary of New Line Cinema.^[10]

He has produced a number of other films, including 1991's The Marrying Man and 29th Street, 1992's Captain Ron and Consenting Adults, 1993's The Temp, 1994's Surviving the Game, and others.^[11] 29th Street (1991) released by Twentieth Century Fox,^[10] Permut worked with Bob Saget on the March of the Penguins parody film Farce of the Penguins in 2007.^[12] He produced the 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge, which was premiered at the Venice Film Festival.^[13] It was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.^[14]

In addition to studio films, Permut has produced a number of independent films including Charlie Bartlett,^[15] Youth in Revolt,^[16] Struck by Lightning,^[17] and Match.

Other independent films Permut has produced include The Polka King, which premiered at the Sundance film festival, and starring Jack Black, and Punching Henry, which debuted at SXSW.^[18]

Permut was the co-producer alongside Ben Stiller of the 2009 documentary The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, and later The Fabulous Allan Carr.^[19] In 2010, Permut also produced the five-part documentary series Visible: Out on Television for Apple TV+.^[20]

In 2019, Permut produced The Investigation: A Search for the Truth, a live staged reading of excerpts from the Mueller Report, with a cast that included John Lithgow, Kevin Kline, and Zachary Quinto.^[21]

Permut produced the feature film Twinless, written, directed by, and starring James Sweeney and co-starring Dylan O’Brien, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025.^[22] The film received the Sundance 2025 U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, as well as the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Dylan O’Brien.^[23][24]

Permut also executive produced the documentary, Raoul Wallenberg: Missing Inaction, which premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2026.^[25]

Permut also produced the Apple Original Film Being Heumann, which was based on the memoir by Judy Heumann, was directed by Siân Heder, and starred Mark Ruffalo, Ruth Madeley, and Dylan O’ Brien.^{[26][27][28][29]}

His television credits include 1984's Love Leads the Way, 1987’s Mistress, 1991's A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story, 1992's Breaking the Silence, 2009's Emmy-nominated and GLAAD Award-winning^[30] Prayers for Bobby, 2014's The Color of Rain, and 2023's series Lawman: Bass Reeves.^[31]

He has done theatre production, including the stage production of The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts.^[21] He is slated to produce the Broadway theatre stage production Behind the Candelabra.^[32]

As of 2016^[update], Permut has lived in Westwood, California. He has a second home in Palm Springs.

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Camera and electrical department

Miscellaneous crew

• David Permut at IMDb