Amy Pascal
Co-Chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group
Amy Pascal was named Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment in September 2006 and has served as Chairman of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group since December, 2003.
Ms. Pascal, along with Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, is responsible for overseeing all business lines for the studio, including the motion picture division—Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Animation, and TriStar Pictures, as well as the SPE's worldwide television production and distribution operation, home entertainment and digital production facilities.
The studio is currently enjoying great success with such hit films as 2012, Michael Jackson's This Is It, Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Columbia Pictures' Zombieland, Julie & Julia and The Ugly Truth, and TriStar Pictures' District 9. Highly anticipated projects from the legendary studio include Roland Emmerich's 2012, The Green Hornet, starring Seth Rogen and directed by Michel Gondry, Salt, an action film starring Angelina Jolie, Adam Sandler's next film, Grown Ups, and the next installment in the Spider-Man legend, due in theaters May, 2011.
In her twenty-plus years at the studio, first as a vice president and working her way up to co-chairman, she has guided the studio through the release of three blockbuster Spider-Man films, the successful reboot of the legendary James Bond franchise, a long and successful relationship with Will Smith which has resulted in a number of worldwide hits including Men in Black, Men in Black 2, Hitch, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Hancock, and blockbuster film adaptations of Dan Brown's best-selling novels The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. In addition, the studio is home to comic superstar Adam Sandler, who has starred in or produced recent Sony box office successes including Paul Blart: Mall Cop, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, and Click among many others.
In recent years, under Pascal's leadership and the guidance of Columbia Pictures Presidents Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, the studio has nurtured a relationship with comedy producer Judd Apatow on a string of commercially successful hits including Superbad, Pineapple Express, Step Brothers, and Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby. The legendary studio has also released such successful titles as Something's Gotta Give, Men in Black and Men in Black II, two Charlies Angels movies, and two Bad Boys films, among many others.
With the success of these titles and many more, Sony Pictures Entertainment was #1 in North American market share for three of the last six years (2006, 2004 and 2002) and was the #2 studio in 2003. Since 2002, Sony Pictures Entertainment has released more than 60 #1 films and is only one of two studios to generate more than $1 billion in domestic box office sales for each of the past eight years.
Ms. Pascal joined Columbia Pictures in 1988, leaving the studio in 1994 to help build Turner Pictures as president of Production. During her first years at Columbia, she oversaw such memorable motion pictures as Groundhog Day, Little Women, Awakenings, and A League of Their Own. She rejoined Columbia Pictures in 1996 as president of the studio under John Calley. She became chairman of the studio's motion picture group in 2003.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Pascal was Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox in 1986-1987. Before joining Fox, Ms. Pascal began her career as a secretary working for legendary BBC producer Tony Garnett at Kestral Films, an independent production company affiliated with Warner Bros.
In addition to her creative achievements in filmed entertainment, Ms. Pascal serves on the AFI Board of Trustees as well as the Executive Board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She also has served on the Board of Directors at the Rand Corporation. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in International Relations in 1981.