8 Things to Know About the Accountant Behind the Oscars Envelope Snafu (Photos)

The part of the Oscars that no one really cares about is when the accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers comes out to explain how the votes are counted, yet it was one of those accountants who ended up accidentally causing the worst mix-up in Oscar history when “La La Land” was mistakenly announced to be the winner of Best Picture instead of “Moonlight.”

Brian Cullinan was named to the elite, secret circle of Oscars accountants in 2014, having worked at PwC for over 30 years and serving as as the head of PwC’s entertainment, media & communications assurance practice.

Whether that entails stopping the show, us walking onstage, us signaling to the stage manager — that’s really a game-time decision, if something like that were to happen.

After the event, PricewaterhouseCoopers released an apology for the incident, identifying Cullinan as the one responsible for the switched envelopes and saying that once “La La Land” had been named the winner, “protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.”