Founder takes a back row seat at IMDb

An internet pioneer from Tameside has stepped down as CEO of one of the world’s leading entertainment websites.

Denton-born Col Needham, who turns 58 on Sunday, founded the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in October 1990, selling it to Amazon in a cash-plus-shares deal eight years later. 

The former Audenshaw School and Hyde Clarendon College pupil is now listed as the site’s Founder and Executive Chair and will continue to work from the company’s offices in Bristol. 

His replacement as CEO is Nikki Santoro, who has been IMDb’s Chief operating Officer (COO) since 2021. 

“Needham will provide strategic guidance, consult on key initiatives, and serve as a global ambassador for IMDb,” said a statement from IMDb.  

“He will also maintain his roles as a board member of Into Film and Film Independent, while serving as Global Brand Ambassador for the British Board of Film Classification.” 

Needham said: “I look forward to continuing to work closely with Nikki and the talented IMDb team in my new role as we build on IMDb's legacy and shape the future of entertainment information.” 

In a 2023 interview with Amazon, the outgoing CEO and film buff said that IMDb came about because he wanted to keep track of all the actors he’d seen across the hundreds of movies he’d seen at the time.  

That personal list had grown to almost 15,000 titles – an average of just over one film per day over the past thirty-five years. 

With 250 million monthly users, IMBD is by far the internet's most visited film website and acts as a huge database for TV and movie credits.