Introduction
Stacey Gawain Spikes (born 10 February 1968) is an American entrepreneur and former film marketing executive and producer. He is best known as the founding CEO of MoviePass, a subscription-based service for going to the movies in the United States, and founder of the Urbanworld Film Festival. During his career, Stacy has taken on senior executive roles atMotown Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Miramax Films, and October Films.
Life
Spikes is from Houston, Texas. In 1985, he relocated to Los Angeles to follow his desire to work in the entertainment industry.
Career
Spikes' career began in 1986 at Motown Records, where he was the product manager for Boyz II Men, Stevie Wonder, Spike Lee, Queen Latifah, and Eddie Murphy. In 1990, Spikes joined Sony Music Entertainment and worked on feature film soundtracks for movies including Jungle Fever, Bad Boys, House Party, House Party 2, Prêt-à-Porter, and Darnell Martin's I Like It Like That. In 1994, Spikes became vice president of marketing at Miramax Films. At Miramax, Spikes led marketing campaigns for films including Trainspotting, The Crow: City of Angels, Don’t Be a Menace, Emma and Scream. From 1996–97, Spikes was senior vice president of marketing at October Films.
Spikes founded the Urbanworld Film Festival in 1997. The festival is held annually in New York City.
Spikes launched MoviePass in February 2011 along with co-founder Hamet Watt. In October 2012, the company introduced a new evolution of their business model that uses proprietary location-based payment technology, and provides a secure and independent way for MoviePass members to purchase tickets. He was fired from the company in January 2018 after it was acquired by Helios and Matheson Analytics.