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Despite Morris’ outsize spending, “he’s very low-key,” said the Hollywood insider. “He’s certainly not one of those flashy Hollywood types, so this whole relationship with Hunter Biden is very strange.”
Morris was born Patrick Kevin Morris in Media, Pa., a town of just over 5,000 people about 13 miles outside Philadelphia. His mother worked as a school secretary and his father worked in a refinery. On some occasions, the struggling family relied on food stamps to get by, Morris has told interviewers in the past. Morris worked as a bartender to pay for his studies at Cornell University and law school at New York University, he told a reporter in 2007.
“For me it’s always been, take the leap, take the risk, throw yourself into the fire, and you’ll be rewarded,” Morris said in the interview.
He did just that when, as a newly minted attorney eager to break into Hollywood, he attended a party at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994 that changed his life. He met Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who would go on to create “South Park.” Morris watched their film “Cannibal: The Musical” and was so impressed, he agreed to represent them for free. At about the same time, he met McConaughey, who was struggling to break into film, and forged a similar deal with the aspiring actor. “Kevin’s been a friend and consigliere of mine for over 20 years,” said McConaughey in 2015. “I’ve always enjoyed his outlook and authenticities of where he’s from and wants to go.”
Morris is a director of the Just Keep Livin Foundation, a charity started by McConaughey and his model wife, Camila Alves, in 2006 to help high school students improve their physical and mental health, according to public records.
Morris has been married to Hollywood agent Gaby Morgerman since 1991. Morgerman, who grew up on Long Island, is senior vice president at William Morris Endeavor in Beverly Hills, and the couple has two children.
Although he’s made millions as a successful attorney, Morris has said he wanted to be a writer since he was 12 years old. “I think it’s my calling to be a creative person, an artist,” Morris told a Cornell University alumni publication in 2017 when he made a visit to the school to mentor young writers. “Even with me being a lawyer, my artistic orientation allowed me to get along in the practice that I chose, because when you represent creative people, it helps to be creative yourself.”
Morris, who launched his boutique law firm in Los Angeles in 1996, later put together a $550 million landmark licensing deal for Parker and Stone’s “South Park” and shared in a Tony Award as a co-producer of their hit musical, “Book of Mormon.” Last year, Morris negotiated another lucrative deal with the “South Park” creators, who signed a $900 million contract with Viacom CBS, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Now Morris is attempting to save Hunter Biden.
Morris has said he wants to publicly question the story behind The Post’s October 2020 exclusive revealing the contents of his infamous laptop — a situation that caused concern at the White House, according to the New York Times. In contrast to Morris, Biden’s defense lawyers want the president’s son to stay out of the spotlight and resolve a federal grand jury probe in Wilmington, Delaware, without going to trial if charges are filed, the Times said.
But Morris may have garnered even more unwanted attention after McAleer went public this week with his allegations that Morris spied on his production of “My Son Hunter.”
McAleer said Morris and his colleagues were given full access to the set and allowed to interview McAleer, co-producer McElhinney and the cast over several days, including over lengthy dinners.
But recent revelations about the relationship between Morris and Hunter Biden led McAleer to re-evaluate the visit, he said.
“They seemed to never switch the camera off — now I know why. This was an information-gathering exercise by a lawyer and his associates for their client,” said McAleer, whose film is set to be an unflattering portrait of the Biden family.
Morris did not return phone calls seeking comment.
— Additional reporting by Sara Nathan