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Haim Saban (Hebrew: חיים סבן; Arabic: حاييم صبان) is an Egyptian-born Israeli American television and media proprietor. With an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the one hundred fourth richest person in America.
Biography[]
Haim Saban with glasses
In 1956, the Saban family immigrated to Israel along with the bulk of the Egyptian Jewish community. Saban was sent to a Youth Aliyah boarding school. Expelled for being a troublemaker, he enrolled in a night school where the principal told him: "You're not cut out for academic studies; you're cut out for making money." Saban started his career in 1966 as a bass player and manager with the rock band The Lions of Judah (Ha'arayot). In 1969, Dave Watts from the British band The Tornados joined The Lions. That year, the band traveled to England, performed in night clubs in London and was signed up by Polydor Records. In July 1969, the band appeared on the BBC TV program Colour Me Pop. The Lions recorded a single, "Our Love's A Growing Thing”, but it was not released in the UK due to financial difficulties. The band returned to Israel and Saban focused on being a music promoter. In the early 1970s, Saban moved to France where he worked as a music producer. His clients included Noam Kaniel, Mike Brant and Shuki & Aviva. He also launched a record company with Shuki Levy. In 1978 and 1982, Saban used the pseudonym Kussa for music/lyrics writing credits on four records for which he also served as producer using his real name. Since then, he has frequently used the name Kussa Mahchi for his composing credits on Saban Entertainment productions.
Closely associated with Saban Entertainment, he has produced the music and theme songs for a number of original animated productions as well as foreign media imported to the United States and credited as creating it under the pseudonym Kussa Mahchi. Most often credited with Shuki Levy, he has helped produce the music for shows such as Digimon, Action Man, the 90s Spider-Man series, and Teknoman. Mahchi also had Levy and Ron Wasserman the music for the original Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z and its theme song "Rock the Dragon".
Saban is married to Cheryl Saban (née Chackler), with whom he has two children. He also has two stepchildren, Tifany and Heidi Lenhart. He resides in Beverly Hills, California.
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