MoCo Native Steven Rales Wins 2024 Oscar; Award Accepted on His Behalf By Presenter Issa Rae, Who Grew up in MoCo

Montgomery County native Steven Rales won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film as producer of the film, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Rales was born in Bethesda in 1951. He founded Danaher Corporation in 1984 with his brother Mitchell Rales (part owner of the Washington Commanders and founder of Glenstone), where Steven Rales is chairman of the board.

Steven Rales founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006, which works closely with filmmaker Wes Anderson, who won the Oscar alongside Rales for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” The company has produced films such as Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs. He is also a minority owner of the Indiana Pacers, purchasing a 20% stake in the team last year.

“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” stars Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade. It was written by Roald Dahl and chronicles a variety of stories, but the main one follows Henry Sugar– who is able to see through objects and predict the future with the help of a book he stole. The 40 minute film is currently streaming on Netflix.

Rales and Anderson were not present to accept their award, so presenters Issa Rae and Ramy Youssef accepted the awards on their behalf. In a fun MoCo connection, Issa Rae grew up in Montgomery County. Rae was born in Los Angeles. After moving to Senegal for a couple years where her father, a pediatrician,  attempted to open a hospital, her family moved to Potomac, Maryland. While growing up in Potomac, she was in a gifted and talented program at Cold Spring Elementary School.