Thomas Hedley

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Tom Hedley, (b. Rugby, Warwickshire) the former publisher of Duckworth in London, is presently President and Publisher of Hedley Media Group in New York City. As a young editor of Esquire magazine, he edited and published essays by Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Michelangelo Antonioni and Andy Warhol, among others. A fascination with film led to a number of written and produced screenplays including: Circle of Two, [3] directed by Jules Dassin, starring Richard Burton and Tatum O'Neal, Mr. Patman, starring Kate Nelligan and James Colburn, Double Negative, starring Michael Sarrazin, Tony Perkins and John Candy, Fighting Back, starring Patti Lupone and Tom Skerritt, and most famously, Flashdance, starring Jennifer Beals. Flashdance was an international hit, which is currently being adapted as a Broadway musical. He has written screenplays for Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Jean-Paul Goude and Sean Penn, among others.

Career highlights

• As editor-in-chief of Toronto Life, Tom Hedley turned it into the “magazine of the year” and published, among others, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies and won the national magazine award for a short story by Alice Munro.

• Tom Hedley was the youngest ever editor of Esquire Magazine during the magazine’s golden age, working for the legendary Harold Hayes in New York. During his tenure, he worked with important writers and artists of the time including Tom Wolfe, Michael Herr, Diane Arbus, Jean Genet, William Burroughs, Gay Talese and Robert Coover. He produced a number of celebrated cover-sections including: The Decline and Fall of the American Avant Garde in which he commissioned a play by Sam Shepard that was eventually performed at Lincoln Center, Claes Oldenburg’s last happening and a photographic essay on The New Theater by Andy Warhol. He commissioned and published essays by Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, and Michelangelo Antonioni, among others, and asked the great directors to direct their own self-portraits.

• He produced and directed four documentaries for the CBC’s flagship current affairs program and wrote a number of produced screenplays including, among others: Circle of Two, directed by Jules Dassin, starring Richard Burton and Tatum O’Neal; Mr. Patman, starring Kate Nelligan and James Colburn; Double Negative, starring Michael Sarrazin, Tony Perkins and John Candy; Fighting Back, starring Patti Lupone and Tom Skerritt and Flashdance, an international hit which won an Academy Award for best song. He has written screenplays for Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, David Geffen, Jean-Paul Goude, and Sean Penn, among others.

• He recently finished a two-year period in London as Publisher of Duckworth, the 105-year-old publishers of Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence. He created a new imprint called Duck Editions, which received many rave reviews, book awards and books-of-the-year status in the leading British journals and newspapers.

• Tom Hedley is currently President of The Hedley Media Group LLC in New York.
• He is publishing a new book this year in a unique partnership with Rob Gondolfo. They are exploring offers for print and documentary filming for what has been termed a "Thrilling and bizarre story". A press release for Rob Gondolfo is being prepared by the Hedley Media Group and will be made public with the announcement of their book release.
• Mr. Hedley is developing a slate of films and presently preparing Flashdance on Broadway.
• He was Head Boy at Lawrence Sheriff School in his hometown of Rugby.
• He was educated further at the University of Leeds, graduating with a first-class honours degree in Communications and New Media.
• A keen footballer in his younger days, Mr Hedley is a fan of Coventry City and in 2007 was linked with a takeover bid for the club when it found itself on the brink of going into administration.