Sophomore Nick Gray hobnobs with Hollywood
By Jamie Dean
Contributing Reporter

Most university students have never bowled with N’Sync, watched movie premieres with the cast of a film or called actress Shannon Elizabeth for dating advice, but for sophomore Nick Gray – the designer of fan Web sites for both American Pie and American Pie 2 – rubbing shoulders with Hollywood’s elite is becoming a way of life.

Though he had previously created Web sites for businesses and other organizations professionally, Gray’s motivation for designing a site for the first American Pie movie was purely personal.

“I first got involved by seeing a test screening about six weeks before the movie was released,” he said.

Gray, a high school senior at the time, claims that he developed his first AP fan site as a “labor of love.” The site was soon heavily trafficked (about 10,000 visitors a day) and it caught the attention of AP producer Warren Zide.

Zide contacted Gray and a mutually beneficial relationship was formed wherein Zide would feed tips to Gray who would, in turn, post the news on the fan page.

All Gray’s work on the first American Pie site paid off when the second movie was produced. Having already built strong friendships with members of the AP crew, including the head writer, Gray says it was just assumed that he would create the Web page for the sequel when it was released.

As part of this second effort, Gray also initiated a program dubbed “Project DataPie.” For this promotion, Gray was able to convince companies like BeVocal and EnterVoice to donate hardware and programmers so that on opening day moviegoers in theaters all over the country could call in to a database and report on how full their respective theaters were. These results were then posted on Gray’s site and at CNET.com.

“This thing was just massive,” he says, “Within minutes of the movie starting we had an idea of how well it would do.”

While not hobnobbing with Hollywood executives, Gray is pursuing a business degree at the university. He says he was attracted to the university, in part, by its outstanding entrepreneurship programs and graduate opportunities but, mostly, by the campus environment and student body.

“There’s just so much talent here,” he says, “I meet students here everyday that continue to impress me.”

One of the impressive students that Gray met was Ricky Van Veen.

Van Veen, a junior information systems major, was already a successful businessman in his own right, both on the Internet and in television production, when he first came in contact with Gray. As the two became friends, they decided to combine Van Veen’s TV experience and contacts with Gray’s American Pie work to produce their own TV special.

“Nick is very enterprising and slick,” Van Veen said, “He has a way of speaking to people, especially people who can hook him up.”

Universal Studios sent Gray to the set of American Pie 2 to film a press junket and TV spot that would be aired on some 200 college campuses nationwide.

With Van Veen’s help, Gray was able to convince college network Zilo to cover the post costs of producing the TV show.

Gray hosted the show and set up interviews with the AP2 stars through Universal Studios while Van Veen did some production work.

“We went where no other press junket has ever gone,” Gray said. “What was great is that I had the freedom of not being with a big network. I didn’t have to worry about not being called back so I just had fun with it.”

Gray’s interviews at the press junket translated into a half-hour special that he describes as “provocative” and that Van Veen calls “raw humor.” Both students are pleased with their show.

“It is beautiful,” Van Veen says. “Nick did a great job and the stars responded well to him because he was not just another guy in a suit running around asking questions.”
One of the fringe benefits Gray received as a personal friend of both the director and writer of American Pie was a cameo appearance in the second movie. He flew to the AP set and had make up and wardrobe with the rest of the cast. His one line, “Dude, the cops? What the hell?” comes early in the movie during a party scene at the home of one of the movie’s characters, Stiffler.

However, according to Gray, the scene was too long and his line was cut from the final production – though it can be seen on his Zilo special and it may also appear on the AP2 DVD.

Off camera and offline, Gray is involved in many other activities. He is a member of the Lilting Banshees comedy troupe and a Sigma Nu fraternity pledge.

“This whole experience has been beyond words for me,” he said, “Shannon (Elizabeth) calls me to ask how pledging is going and (Adam) Herz calls me to bounce ideas around for his new movie, and I think I just take it for granted now. In the big picture, I don’t know what to make of it. I’m the luckiest guy with a fan page in the world.”

Gray’s special will be aired on Wake TV and his American Pie and American Pie II sites arePiemovie.com and Piemovie2.com.