Hollywood’s Top Doctors: Best Neurological Surgeons in Los Angeles

This story first appeared in the Sept. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Health and drama go together like air and water for Hollywood — the industry needs both to sustain itself. Just ask Seth MacFarlane, whose 2013 Oscar hosting gig was rescued by ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr. Shawn Nasseri, or So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe, whose grandson was saved by pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Krieger, or Charlie Sheen, whose shoulder injury was prevented from derailing a money-minting career by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Raj (yes, that’s his name — this is Hollywood, after all). For its second annual Doctors Issue, The Hollywood Reporter elicited stories of drama, trauma and triumph over both by surveying 2,000 professionals in the film, television, movie, music, sports and media fields to find out who are the most beloved, trusted and go-to physicians in L.A.

THR also scored an exclusive interview with former NBC medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who was excoriated for supposedly violating her Ebola quarantine, as well as her cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who did indeed contract the dreaded disease and lived to tell about it. THR also asked this haunting question: What happens to the patients when a beloved doctor dies? In the case of Dr. Fredric Brandt, the celebrity dermatologist who commanded eight figures in annual billing before committing suicide in April, the answer is: a gold rush among prominent doctors to grab what they can from the dermatological diaspora. THR found out how to live to be 100 and still work in Hollywood (centenarian Norman Lloyd recently appeared in Trainwreck) and, in perhaps the world’s first Hollywood-oriented DSM-V, catalogued the dominant dysfunctions and diagnoses of the industry’s top jobs, from studio exec to screenwriter (producers win the top prize for anxiety, by the way). Finally, if you’ve ever wondered if you’re as narcissistic as people say everyone in Hollywood is, there’s a quiz for that.

As for the official Hollywood’s Top Doctors list for 2015, to identify the 469 elite physicians who qualified for it, THR’s editors partnered with the physician-led research team of Castle Connolly, the U.S.’ preeminent medical-database authority, to identify the highest-rated practitioners in their specialties, all of whom are nominated by their peers in an extensive survey process of thousands of U.S. doctors each year. The listed doctors rank in the nation’s top 10 percent and are among the very best in their specialties and communities. Castle Connolly screens these doctors’ medical educations, training, hospital appointments, disciplinary histories and much more. Doctors do not and cannot pay to be included.

Read more from The Hollywood Reporter‘s Top Doctors Issue:

Hollywood’s Top Doctors 2015

Hollywood DSM: Industry Shrinks Reveal What’s Wrong With Actors, Producers, Agents and More

Stars and Their Doctors: Seth MacFarlane With the Man Who Saved His Voice for the Oscars

Stars and Their Doctors: A ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Producer and the Man Who Knows Him Inside Out

Producer Nigel Lythgoe Pays Homage to the Doctor Who Saved His Baby Grandson

Stars and Their Doctors: Charlie Sheen and the Man Who Gives Him Stem Cells

How a Showtime PR Exec’s Daughter Was Cured of Debilitating Scoliosis

Yes, You Can Turn 100 in Hollywood and Still Work

Former CAA Partner: Why I Became an Agent for the Sick (Guest Column)

Dr. Fredric Brandt’s Suicide Sparks Frantic Scramble for His Celebrity Patients

Nancy Snyderman Breaks Silence on Ebola Nightmare, NBC News: “People Wanted Me Dead” (Exclusive)

Hollywood Psychologist on Reasons Why A-List Couples Fail

Hollywood’s Top Doctors 2015: The Dentist List

Want to Get “Expensive Urine”? Look at the Hollywood History of Health Fads

L.A.’s Westside Mystery: Higher Cancer Rates in One Zip Code, Longer Lives in Another

Manopause and Male Aging: Gavin Polone Says Just Say No to Those Drugs (Guest Column)

Ken Jeong: How to Ditch Medicine for a Career in Comedy and Diagnose Castmates (Guest Column)

Why There’s a Medical Crisis for Transgender Youth (Guest Column)

Arun P. Amar
Keck Medicine of USC
1520 San Pablo St.
Los Angeles 90033
323-442-7512

Behnam Badie
City of Hope Nat’l Medical Ctr.
1500 E. Duarte Road
Duarte 91010
626-471-7100

Keith L. Black
Cedars-Sinai
127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles 90048
310-423-7900

Robert S. Bray Jr.
DISC Sports & Spine Center
13160 Mindanao Way
Marina del Rey 90292
310-574-0400

Thomas C. Chen
Keck Medicine of USC
1520 San Pablo St.
Los Angeles 90033
323-442-5720

Moise Danielpour
Cedars-Sinai
127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles 90048
310-423-7900

Igor Fineman
Raymond Neurosurgery & Spine
630 S. Raymond Ave.
Pasadena 91105
626-535-9552

Steven L. Giannotta
Keck Medicine of USC
1520 San Pablo St.
Los Angeles 90033
323-442-5720

J. Patrick Johnson
Cedars-Sinai
444 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles 90048
310-423-9900

Mark D. Krieger
Children’s Hospital L.A.
1300 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles 90027
323-361-2169

Todd H. Lanman
450 N. Roxbury Drive
Beverly Hills 90210
310-385-7766

Linda M. Liau
UCLA Health System
300 Stein Plaza
Los Angeles 90095
310-267-2621

Charles Y. Liu
Keck Medicine of USC
1520 San Pablo St.
Los Angeles 90033
323-442-5720

Adam N. Mamelak
Cedars-Sinai
127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles 90048
310-423-7900

Neil A. Martin
UCLA Health System
300 Stein Plaza
Los Angeles 90095
310-267-2621

John S. Yu
Cedars-Sinai
127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles 90048
310-423-7900