Paula Wagner (born Paula Kauffman 12 December 1946 in Youngstown, Ohio) is an American film producer and film executive.
Wagner earned her BA at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She began her career as an actress, appearing in several Broadway and off-Broadway stage productions. Wagner also performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre. In addition to being an actress, she is also a published playwright, co-writing the play Out of Our Father's House.
Wagner became a talent agent at the Creative Artists Agency; her clients included Kevin Bacon, Val Kilmer, Demi Moore, Liam Neeson, Oliver Stone, and Tom Cruise. Wagner paired Stone with Cruise for Born on the Fourth of July, with Kilmer on The Doors, and helped him cast JFK.
Cruise and Wagner formed Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993. Their films include the Mission: Impossible series, Vanilla Sky, The Last Samurai, and War of the Worlds. Other projects include Without Limits, The Others, Narc, Ask the Dust, and Elizabethtown.
On November 2, 2006, MGM announced that Wagner and Cruise acquired a small stake in United Artists. Wagner was named CEO, while Cruise will serve as a producer. The announcement came after Sumner Redstone terminated Cruise's association with Paramount Pictures.
Wagner is married to Tom Cruise's agent Rick Nicita, who is also Co-Chairman of Creative Artists Agency.
She was a juror at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.
Paula was born in Youngstown, Ohio to Edmund Jamison Kauffman and Sue Kauffman, with her two sisters Sally Hale and Susan Brooks. She started her career in the Youngstown Playhouse, then attended Carnegie Mellon University in the Drama department. Paula left Carnegie Mellon to act in New York, where she was asked back to Carnegie Mellon. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and went back to New York to marry Robin Wagner (I), a Broadway Set designer. Paula and Robin divorced and Paula went to Los Angeles to become an agent for CAA, Tom Cruise's agent. From there, she met Rick Nicita and married him. During her career at CAA, she and Tom formed C/W productions.
