Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars

It was a pivotal moment in the late 1990s when Ehrman, 35, then an intern at Davis Entertainment on the Fox lot, was sent to the studio's library to look through magazines in search of possible movie ideas. The UC Berkeley student was intrigued by the concept that anything could be a film. "After that," he says, "anything and everything I read, I began running that filter: 'Is this a movie? Is that a movie?' " In the ensuing years, Ehrman, who grew up in Malibu, did locations work on an indie film, started a website, worked a mailroom job at AMG and eventually landed, in 2004, as assistant to a producer with a deal at Warner Bros., which opened doors at the studio. In 2008, he became a junior executive on The Hangover, graduating to executive on The Hangover Part II. He oversaw the upcoming Todd Phillips-produced comedy Project X and is about to start production on Dogfight, a Will Ferrell-Zach Galifianakis political satire. Projects such as Tarzan and an untitled drama that Matt Damon will direct demonstrate that while he has an affinity for them, he's not just focused on comedies. "We're all encouraged and expected to speak many languages, genre-wise," he says. "There are some that I happen to be more fluent in than others."

PHOTOS: THR's Next Gen Class of 2011