Craig Braun
Craig Braun
Media Packaging Veteran | Making Vinyl Awards Host
Craig Braun has been a professional actor since taking early retirement from the Warner Music Group in 2001, where he was a Creative and Marketing Director. Craig is a music packaging legend in his own right, who executed such iconic album covers as the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the Velvet Underground & Nico, and Alice Cooper’s School’s Out. He also was responsible for iconic 1970s albums including Joe Cocker and Leon Russell‘s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Cheech and Chong‘s Big Bambu, Grand Funk Railroad’s E Pluribis Funk. Braun’s companies are credited with the design and manufacturing of a monumental portion of memorable records of the ’60s and ’70s. In 1972 Craig partnered with legendary art director Tom Wilkes, Wilkes & Braun, won a Grammy Award for packaging in 1974 for the London Symphony Orchestra’s version of The Who‘s Tommy! They were nominated for the same Grammy in 1973 for Alice Cooper‘s School’s Out. In 2003 music channel VH1 declared Sticky Fingers the ‘“No. 1 Greatest Album Cover of All Time.”
Craig’s New York stage credits Other Desert Cities, Mabeth, ‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore, Deathtrap and Merchant of Venice. In Los Angeles he appeared in the world premieres of Damages And The Million Bells of Ocean, Proof, Vivien, and Our Lady of 121st Street. Among his many TV guest star roles are Cold Case, ER, The Practice, Third Watch and Law & Order, as well as the lead role in the acclaimed ZDF miniseries, Ums Paradies Betrogn. Film work includes Swordfish, Great Expectations, Flawless, The Associate, to mention a few. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio.