Jeffrey Katzenberg

Jeffrey Katzenberg
source
Name	Jeffrey Katzenberg
Caption	Katzenberg in 2013
Birth date	21 December 1950
Birth place	New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Film producer, media executive, venture capitalist
Spouse	Marilyn Siegel, 1975
Known for	Chairman of DreamWorks Animation, executive roles at Disney and Paramount Pictures

Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and media executive who played a pivotal role in the late-20th-century revitalization of The Walt Disney Studios and later co-founded the major studio DreamWorks. Known for his intense management style and keen commercial instincts, he helped shepherd numerous critically and financially successful animated and live-action films. His later career has expanded into technology investment and significant political fundraising within the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

Born in New York City, he was raised in a Jewish family in the Manhattan neighborhood of Park Avenue. He attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale before enrolling at New York University. His formal education was brief, as he dropped out of NYU in his sophomore year to pursue a career in politics, initially working on the 1969 mayoral campaign for John V. Lindsay. This early foray into political organizing, including work for Mayor Abraham Beame, honed the networking and persuasive skills that would later define his Hollywood career.

Career at Paramount and Disney

His entertainment career began in the early 1970s at Paramount Pictures, where he started as an assistant to the studio's head of production, Barry Diller. He quickly ascended through the ranks under the mentorship of Diller and Michael Eisner, eventually becoming President of Production in the early 1980s. During his tenure, Paramount released major hits like *Saturday Night Fever*, *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, and *Beverly Hills Cop*. In 1984, he followed Michael Eisner to The Walt Disney Company, where he was appointed chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. There, he oversaw a remarkable creative and commercial resurgence, revitalizing the animation division with a string of successes now known as the Disney Renaissance, including *The Little Mermaid*, *Beauty and the Beast*, and *The Lion King*. He also expanded the studio's live-action output with films like *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* and *Pretty Woman*.

Co-founding DreamWorks and later ventures

After a highly publicized departure from Disney in 1994, he partnered with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to co-found the multimedia studio DreamWorks. He served as chairman of DreamWorks Animation, which became a publicly traded company and a major competitor to Pixar and Disney, producing franchises such as *Shrek*, *Madagascar*, and *Kung Fu Panda*. Following DreamWorks Animation's acquisition by NBCUniversal in 2016, he transitioned into venture capital, founding WndrCo, a holding company with investments in new media and technology firms like Quibi, a short-form mobile video platform that launched and folded in 2020. He remains an active investor and advisor in the tech sector.

Political involvement and philanthropy

A longtime supporter and prolific fundraiser for the Democratic Party, he has been a major bundler for presidential campaigns including those of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. He served as a national finance chair for the Democratic National Committee and was a co-chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. His philanthropic efforts are channeled through the Katzenberg Foundation, and he has served on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research. He was also a founding member of the Committee to Protect Journalists and has been involved with the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Personal life

He has been married to Marilyn Siegel since 1975, and they have two adult children. The family maintains residences in Beverly Hills and East Hampton. An avid art collector, he owns significant works by artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He is also known for his competitive nature, which extends to his participation in high-stakes poker games and charity tennis tournaments alongside other prominent figures in Hollywood and the Silicon Valley tech community.

Category:American film producers Category:American media executives Category:1950 births Category:Living people