Kevin O'Connell

O'Connell held the record for most Academy Award nominations without a win at 20, having originally set the record in 2006 with his 18th nomination and loss, making him the "unluckiest nominee in the history of the Academy Awards". In 2017, he won his first Academy Award at the 89th Academy Awards for Hacksaw Ridge.In his acceptance speech at the ceremony, held on February 26, 2017, O'Connell thanked his mother, Skippy, who had urged him into his profession.[2007] His mother passed away shortly after the Academy Awards, where he lost for the nineteenth time. However, he was able to be with her during the final moments (he left after the winner in his category was announced).

O'Connell returned to Sony Pictures Post Production Services in 2014. His recent credits include: Tenet, (2020), Bad Boys For Life, (2020), Little Women, (2019), 6 Underground, (2019), Jumanji, The Next Level, (2019), Spider-man: Far From Home, (2019), Shazam!, (2019), Venom, (2018), Jumanji, Welcome To The Jungle, (2017), Spider-man, Homecoming, (2017), Hacksaw Ridge, (2016), Pitch Perfect 2, (2015), Pitch Perfect, (2012)A native of Bethpage, Town of Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York.

Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Sound Branch) [2003-2012]In 1990, O'Connell became one of the founding re-recording mixers at Skywalker Sound South in Santa Monica earning credits on Misery, (1990) Hudson Hawk, (1991), A Few Good Men (1992), City Slickers, (1991), In The Line OF Fire,(1993) and True Romance,(1993).

In 1993, Michael J. Kohut, Sound Director at Sony Pictures in Culver City, hired O'Connell to work in the historic Cary Grant Theater on films including Tombstone (1993), Bad Boys, (1995), Bad Boys II, (2003) The Rock, (1996) Starship Troopers (1997), The Mask Of Zorro, (1998), Armageddon (1998), Gone In 60 Seconds, (2000), The Patriot, (2000), Pearl Harbor, (2001), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2, (2004), Memoirs Of A Geisha, (2005), Talladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby, (2006), The Da Vinci Code, (2006), Spider-man 3, (2007), The Passion Of The Christ, (2004), and Transformers (2007).

Reluctantly he passed on the opportunity to work on Dances with Wolves (1990) in favor of a low budget direct to video film because he had already committed to the film's director. Ironically, Dances With Wolves would go on to win the Oscar for Best Sound that year.In October 2013, he was hired to provide mixing services and take a creative leadership role at Todd Soundelux, working in that company's Todd-AO division in Santa Monica, California.

Kevin O'Connell was born in Long Island, New York and raised in Los Angeles, California. At age 18, he became a projectionist at 20th Century Fox Studios, where his mother Skippy was a secretary for the head of the Sound Department, John A. Bonner. Subsequently, failing the trade union examination for the projection job, he became a Los Angeles County firefighter for one year. At the behest of his concerned mother, alarmed at his gaunt and charred appearance following a 3 day brush fire in Sylmar, Los Angeles, he obtained a job from Donald C Rogers as a machine-room operator (dummy loader) at Warner Hollywood Studios, also known as Samuel Goldwyn Studios in 1978, where he worked on films including Grease, (1978), Hair, (1978) Animal House,(1978), The Buddy Holly Story, (1978) Ordinary People, (1980), Star Trek The Motion Picture, (1979), The Black Stallion, (1979), Raiders Of The Lost Arc, (1981), Escape From New York, (1981), As a recording technician, he earned his first screen credit on The Empire Strikes Back (1980).