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JEFFREY KATZENBERG

Jeffrey Katzenberg (born December 21, 1950) is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most known for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios when Disney produced some of its biggest hits, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. As a founder and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, he has overseen the production of such animated franchises as Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon.

Katzenberg was born in New York City, the son of Anne, an artist, and Walter, a stockbroker. He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, graduating in 1969.

Katzenberg began his career as an assistant to producer David Picker, then in 1974 he became an assistant to Barry Diller, the Chairman of Paramount Pictures. Diller moved Katzenberg to the marketing department, followed by other assignments within the studio, until he was assigned to revive the Star Trek franchise, which resulted in the hit film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). He continued to work his way up and became President of Production under Paramount President Michael Eisner.

In 1984, Michael Eisner became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at The Walt Disney Company. Eisner brought Katzenberg with him to take charge of Disney’s motion picture division. Katzenberg was responsible for reviving the studio which, at the time, ranked last at the box office among the major studios. He focused the studio on the production of adult-oriented comedies under its Touchstone Pictures banner, including films such as Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Three Men and a Baby (1987) and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). By 1987, Disney had become the number-one studio at the box office. Katzenberg also oversaw Touchstone Television, which produced such hit TV series, The Golden Girls and Home Improvement.

Katzenberg was also charged with turning around Disney’s ailing Feature Animation unit, creating some intrastudio controversy when he personally edited three minutes out of a completed Disney animated feature, The Black Cauldron (1985), shortly after joining the company.

Under his management, the animation department eventually began creating some of Disney’s most critically acclaimed and highest grossing animated features. These films include Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Beauty and the Beast (1991, the first animated feature to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994). In addition, Katzenberg also sealed the deal that created the highly successful partnership between Pixar and Disney and the deal that brought Miramax Films into Disney.

When Eisner’s second in command, Frank Wells, died in a helicopter crash in 1994, Eisner refused to promote Katzenberg to the vacated position of president. This led to a falling out between the two executives, and Katzenberg left the company in September 1994. He launched a lawsuit against Disney to recover money he felt he was owed and settled out of court for an estimated $250 million.

Later in 1994, Katzenberg co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, with Katzenberg taking primary responsibility for animation operations. He was also credited as executive producer on the DreamWorks animated films The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Road to El Dorado and Joseph: King of Dreams (both in 2000) and Shrek in 2001.

After DreamWorks Animation suffered a $125 million loss on the traditionally-animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, the studio switched to all computer-generated animation. Since then, DreamWorks’ animated films have been consistently successful.

In 2004, DreamWorks Animation (DWA) was spun off from DreamWorks as a separate company headed by Katzenberg in an IPO and has recorded mostly profitable quarters since then.

The live-action DreamWorks movie studio was sold to Viacom in December 2005. In 2008, the live-action DreamWorks studio again became an independent production company, releasing its films through Disney.

In 2006, Katzenberg made an appearance on the fifth season of The Apprentice. He awarded the task winners an opportunity to be character voices in Over the Hedge.

Katzenberg has been an industry leader in promoting digital 3D production of film, calling it “the greatest advance in the film industry since the arrival of color in the 1930s.” When Katzenberg appeared on The Colbert Report on April 20, 2010, he confirmed that from now on “every single movie” that DreamWorks Animation produced would be in 3D and gave Stephen Colbert a pair of new 3D glasses.

Katzenberg married Marilyn Siegel, a kindergarten teacher, in 1975, and they have two children.

Together, Marilyn and Jeffrey have been highly active in charitable causes. They donated the multi-million-dollar Katzenberg Center to Boston University’s College of General Studies, citing that the school gave their two children the “love of education.” They also donated the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Center for Animation at the University of Southern California.

In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board for the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation, Katzenberg sits on the boards or serves as a trustee of AIDS Project Los Angeles, American Museum of the Moving Image, California Institute of the Arts, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Geffen Playhouse, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and The Simon Wiesenthal Center. Together with DreamWorks Animation, Katzenberg founded the DreamWorks Animation Academy of Inner-City Arts in 2008.

Katzenberg has an estimated worth of $800 million according to Forbes. Katzenberg is reported to have donated over $3.5 million in political contributions since 1979: 33% ($1.171+ million) to Democrats, 66% ($2.33+ million) to special interest groups without party affiliations, and less than 1% ($7,000) to Republicans.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ringling College of Art and Design on May 2, 2008.

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