Eric Goode

Eric Goode – Life, Career, and Memorable Insights

Explore the multifaceted life of Eric Goode — American entrepreneur, conservationist, and documentary filmmaker best known for Tiger King and Chimp Crazy. Learn his story, career achievements, and inspiring perspectives.

Introduction

Eric V. Goode (born December 19, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, conservation advocate, and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. He first gained public attention in New York’s nightlife, founding iconic nightclubs, restaurants, and boutique hotels. Over time, he shifted his focus toward wildlife conservation—particularly turtles and tortoises—and documentary filmmaking, producing and directing breakout hits such as Tiger King (Netflix) and Chimp Crazy (HBO). His life bridges creative enterprise, environmental activism, and daring storytelling.

Early Life and Influences

Eric Goode was born in Rhode Island, U.S. on December 19, 1957.

He studied art and design: among his formal training are stints at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Parsons School of Design.

Career and Achievements

Eric Goode’s career can be seen in phases: nightlife & hospitality, art & design, wildlife conservation, and documentary film. Each phase interacts with and amplifies the others.

Nightlife, Hospitality & Creative Enterprise

• In 1983, Goode co-founded the Area nightclub in New York City. The club became legendary for its rotating themes, immersive art installations, and collaboration with artists like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, and Keith Haring.

• Area was more than a club: it was an artistic experiment, where visual art, performance, and nightlife intermingled.

• Over subsequent decades, Goode expanded into hotels and restaurants. His ventures include Bowery Hotel, Waverly Inn, Maritime Hotel, The Jane Hotel, Ludlow Hotel, and Hotel El Roblar (in Ojai, CA) among others.

• He also launched and managed restaurants and bars like B Bar & Grill, the Waverly Inn, and others in New York.

• Through these ventures, Goode built both aesthetic credibility and the financial means to support his later work.

Conservation & The Turtle Conservancy

• Goode’s turn toward environmental work was grounded in his lifelong affinity for reptiles. In the early 2000s, he became involved in turtle and tortoise conservation.

• He founded the Turtle Conservancy, a public charity dedicated to protecting threatened turtles, tortoises, and their habitats globally.

• The Conservancy has secured tens of thousands of acres of habitat protection.

• His Ojai facility, Hotel El Roblar, also functions as a breeding and assurance colony for endangered animals, especially turtles/tortoises, in an AZA-accredited setting.

• He also publishes The Tortoise, an annual magazine of the Turtle Conservancy, covering conservation, ecology, and reptile biology.

Documentary Filmmaking

• Goode moved into documentary film, producing and directing wildlife and human-interest stories, often tied to his conservation concerns.

• In 2020, he released Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix (with Rebecca Chaiklin). It became a cultural phenomenon.

• The follow-up series included Tiger King 2 and Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story.

• In 2024, Goode directed Chimp Crazy, an HBO documentary series that investigates controversy around chimpanzee ownership and trafficking.

• His documentaries often tread the boundary between sensationalism and advocacy, leveraging public fascination to draw attention to animal welfare and ecological truths.

• Though his presence on-camera is minimal, Goode acts as a storyteller, curator, and editor of real life — choosing which narratives to lift and how to frame them.

Historical & Cultural Context

• Goode’s career bridges the art-driven nightclub culture of the 1980s New York scene, boutique hospitality’s boutique reinventions in the 1990s–2000s, and the streaming-era appetite for true-crime and nature documentaries.

• He represents a rare model: someone who used success in commercial creative enterprises (design, nightlife, hospitality) to fund and legitimate work in conservation and documentary.

• The rise of Tiger King occurred in a moment when global lockdowns drove consumption of wild, escapist media — yet Goode had already been recording exotic animal networks and controversies for years.

• His films arrive at a moment when public concern for wildlife trafficking, habitat loss, and animal welfare is growing; they merge entertainment and ecological messaging.

Legacy, Influence & Impact

Eric Goode’s influence is multifaceted:

• Conservation leadership: He has advanced public visibility for lesser-known endangered species (e.g. turtles, tortoises) as umbrella connectors for broader ecosystems.

• Model of creative capitalism: He shows how art, hospitality, and commerce can be leveraged to support philanthropic and ecological missions.

• Cultural provocateur: Through Tiger King and Chimp Crazy, Goode helped shift public conversations around exotic animal ownership, cruelty, and legality.

• Interdisciplinary path: His life underscores that creative careers need not be confined to one medium; he moves across design, film, activism with coherence.

• Storytelling as advocacy: He uses narrative to bring attention to ecological harm and ethical dilemmas in a way that academic or activist appeals sometimes cannot.

Personality, Philosophy & Traits

• Goode is described as visionary, audacious, and somewhat enigmatic. While he is rarely front-and-center, his hand is in many of the details behind scenes.

• He’s willing to court controversy, to risk reputation, if it advances exposure of hidden problems. In Chimp Crazy, for instance, he disguised his identity to gain access to subjects.

• His love for animals, particularly reptiles, is deeply personal — not only strategic. He has called himself a “closeted animal person,” having nurtured this passion since childhood.

• He views art, nightlife, and narrative as modes of transformation: nightlife for aesthetic collision, hospitality to create sanctuary, film to provoke change.

• Goode is discreet about his personal life; there is limited public documentation about his relationships or family.

Selected Quotes & Insights

Though Eric Goode is not as prolific a public quotemaker as many novelists or philosophers, several statements and themes emerge in interviews:

“Reality is stranger than fiction.”

On Tiger King’s success:

“We worked on it for a very long time, and it’s very rewarding.”

On animal fascination and agency:

He has said that, as a child, at age 6, he got a pet tortoise—and the fascination never left.

On blending art and nightlife:

His club Area often featured unpredictable, immersive art environments, aiming to collapse the barrier between art and social life.

These reflect Goode’s worldview: that boundaries blur, that truth can shock, and that one’s passions—however niche—can become the axis of influence.

Lessons from Eric Goode

1. Use success in commerce as seed capital for mission
   Goode turned nightlife and hospitality ventures into resources to support his ecological filmmaking and conservation work.

2. Follow your fascination
   Long before it became “on trend,” Goode held deep interest in reptiles. He let that curiosity guide major life shifts.

3. Merge modes
   Art, design, storytelling, activism need not be separate. Goode composes experiences across domains to produce holistic impact.

4. Be willing to unsettle
   Good documentaries don’t merely inform—they provoke, disturb, provoke rethinking. Goode leans into controversy over safety.

5. Operate from behind the frame, not always in front
   Goode’s most effective presence is often off-camera; he orchestrates narrative, context, access rather than acting as star.

Conclusion

Eric Goode’s life is a testament to creative transformation. From New York’s avant-garde nightlife to global turtle conservation and streaming-era documentaries, he is an example of how ambition, passion, and persistence can reshape both one’s own path and public discourse. His work compels us to see unexpected connections between art, ecology, and storytelling. If you like, I can compile a gallery of Goode’s films, interviews, and art works, or deepen analysis on Tiger King and Chimp Crazy. Which would you prefer?