Colin Needham (born 26 January 1967) is an English computer scientist who is best known as the founder of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

[a][1] He attended Audenshaw School and Clarendon Sixth Form College in Hyde, Cheshire,[b] and graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc (Hons) in computer science in 1988.

[2] Needham started the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990 while working as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard (HP) in Bristol.

[1][3][4] The site evolved from what was initially his personal film database which became an online bulletin board made from simple records, kept on a succession of early computers and contributed to by several people, all of whom Needham outlasted.

[9] In 2017, Needham removed message boards from IMDb, stating that they "are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide".