He first started managing local Long Island bands as a teenager.[13] He would also book bands at a local nightclub. Through booking acts, he came into contact with Eddie Murphy and helped arrange Murphy's first record deal.[13] As a student at Tufts University, he discovered singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman and executive-produced her first album.[13] He was later brought to Giant Records by president Irving Azoff.[14][15] During his career, Koppelman was an A&R representative for music labels Elektra Records, Giant Records, SBK Records and EMI Records.[15]
Film
In 1997, Koppelman wrote the original screenplay for Rounders with his writing partner, David Levien. Koppelman has described his approach to writing as a team as having only one rule: no video games in the office.[4] In 2001, Koppelman wrote, produced, and directed his first film, Knockaround Guys, which film critic Roger Ebert gave 3 out of 4 stars.[16] Since then, Koppelman has worked on a dozen films, including having written Ocean's Thirteen and directed an ESPN30 for 30 documentary, This Is What They Want.[4]
Koppelman was a contributor and essayist at Grantland.com, a website that was dedicated to sports and pop culture.[18] Additionally, since March 2014, Koppelman has hosted a weekly podcast, "The Moment", on ESPN Radio.[19]
In October, 2013, Koppelman received significant media attention for releasing a series of videos on the platform Vine in which he gives screenwriting advice in six seconds or less called "Six Second Screenwriting Lessons".[20] His "Screenwriting, in Six Seconds or Less" Vine from July 31, 2014, generated over 15 million loops in less than nine days.[21] He has also written a short story, "Wednesday is Viktor's", for the anthology Dark City Lights: New York Stories (Have a NYC), published in 2015.[22] Koppelman has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans.
Koppelman has been involved in several lawsuits regarding his work, namely Grosso v. Miramax Film Corp.,[25]Cayuga Nations v. Showtime Networks Inc.,[26] and Shull v. Sorkin.[27] Both Grosso and Shull claimed that Koppelman stole their ideas and copyright work in his creation of Rounders and Billions respectively.[25][28] All cases have since been dismissed. Shull's case was recently dismissed a second time.[28]
Awards and recognition
In 2013, Tufts University awarded Koppelman their P.T. Barnum Award for success in Media/Arts.[29] In 2014, Koppelman won an Emmy Award for his 30 for 30 documentary.[30]
Of his five-year practice of Transcendental Meditation Koppelman said in 2016: "For me it was a way to control anxiety, and I found that the physical manifestations of anxiety just dissipated by about 85 or 90 percent ... So that was a gigantic life change, to not feel a fluttering stomach, to not get a stress headache and things like that."[34]
