Brett Ratner

Ratner was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, the son of Marsha Presman and Ronald Ratner. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. His grandfather was d-CON mail order rat poison company founder and real estate developer Lee Ratner. His mother was born in Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s with her parents, Fanita and Mario Presman, whose families themselves originally moved to Cuba from Eastern Europe. Ratner's mother was sixteen when he was born. Ratner has said that he "really didn't know" his biological father, and that he considers Alvin Malnik, a lawyer and businessman with alleged organized crime ties who opened the restaurant The Forge in Miami Beach, to be his father, "the one who raised" him. Malnik was a friend of Lee Ratner and not romantically involved with Marsha Presman. Ratner's biological father became homeless in Miami Beach, a situation which inspired Brett Ratner to become a board member of the nationwide nonprofit organization Chrysalis, which helps the homeless find work. Ratner attended Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy elementary school and attended Alexander Muss High School in Israel and graduated in 1986 from Miami Beach Senior High School. While growing up in Miami Beach, Ratner was an extra on the set of Scarface and was able to watch Miami Vice film around town. Shortly before Ratner's high school graduation, his mother and biological father married with the intention of legitimizing his status. He is a 1990 graduate of New York University. In 2010, he cited Martin Scorsese's 1980 film Raging Bull as his inspiration to enter the world of film.