Background

Lynda Rosen Obst was born on the 14th of April, 1950 in New York City, New York, United States of America, the daughter of Robert A. and Claire (Shenker) Rosen.

Education

Lynda Obst studied at Pomona College in Claremont where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1972. She also attended Columbia University where she obtained a degree in Philosophy.

Career

Lynda Obst began her career as the editor and author of The Rolling Stone History of the Sixties. She then became an editor at New York Times Magazine, where she covered such diverse topics as science, philosophy, and publishing.

Obst was recruited to Hollywood by Peter Guber, for whom she developed “Flashdance” that came out in 1983, “Clue” in 1985, and “Contact” in 1997. In 1982 Lynda joined The Geffen Company, where she was mentored by David Geffen and worked as a development girl on “Risky Business” in 1983 and “After Hours” in 1985.

In 1989 Lynda Obst began her solo-producing career, founding the production company Lynda Obst Productions, with a deal at Columbia Pictures where she produced “This Is My Life” in 1991, and “Sleepless in Seattle” in 1993. Obst then moved to Fox where she produced “One Fine Day” in 1996, “The Siege” and “Hope Floats” in 1998, “Someone Like You” in 2001. One of the projects that Lynda first developed came to fruition in 1997, when she executive produced Contact for Warner Bros. Lynda then moved back to Paramount Pictures, where she produced such films as “Abandon” in 2002 and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” in 2003, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Her most recent film was “Interstellar” in 2014.

Obst has been the Executive producer of television programs, including “The 60s” that came out in 1999, “Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood” in 2002. She is the executive producer for the National Geographic channel limited series based on Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone”.

Lynda Obst was the editor for “Rolling Stone History of the Sixties” in 1974–76. With Carol Wolper she wrote “Dirty Dream” in 1990, in 1996 her book “Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches” was published. Her most recent book “Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business” was written in 2013.

Obst appeared in television specials, including Dawn Steel: The E! True Hollywood Story in 1998; What Is a Producer? in 2001 and Hello, He Lied in 2002. She has given seminars on the film industry around the world and has been a moderator and speaker at the annual LA Times Festival of Books.

Achievements

• Lynda Obst’s films have received critical acclaim, and have amassed two Oscar wins, an additional eleven Oscar nominations, four Golden Globe wins and an additional eleven Golden Globe nominations. Her mini-series “The 60's” received three Emmy nominations in 1999.
  
  Obst’s “Hello He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches” debuted at №1 on the LA Times Best Seller list, where it stayed for 10 weeks and turned into an industry classic, later to be adapted into a documentary for AMC.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches

    (In Hello, He Lied, Obst offers real, practical advice to ...)

    1996
  • Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business

    (Over the past decade, producer Lynda Obst gradually reali...)

    2013
  • Dirty Dreams 1990

• movie

  • Interstellar 2014
  • How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 2003
  • Clue 1985
  • Contact 1997
  • The Invention of Lying 2009
  • The Fisher King 1991
  • Abandon 2002
  • Flashdance 1983
  • Risky Business 1983
  • After Hours 1985
  • This Is My Life 1991
  • Sleepless in Seattle 1993
  • One Fine Day 1996
  • The Siege 1998
  • Hope Floats 1998

Religion

Lynda Obst got woke to Judaism during her son’s addiction recovery.

Views

Quotations: "Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers. The studios are certainly complicit, but I think there's some part of it that is women not saying: 'I want this job!' For a really long time, the powerful women in this town have been the nurturers of talent as opposed to the talent. And somehow, women haven't felt empowered to say, 'Give the money to me to make the movie'.".

"I think there are always actor parts, and then there are movie-star parts, and an actor's always an actor until he does a movie-star part".

"Contact was the first movie that made accurate science its number one goal".

Membership

Lynda Obst is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

Connections

Lynda was married to David Obst but they divorced later. Together they have one son, Oliver.

Father:

Robert A. Rosen

Mother:

Claire (Shenker) Rosen

Brother:

Rick Rosen

Rick Rosen is the head of the television department at WME. With a knack for television packaging, Rosen helps WME clients develop successful shows.

Before Endeavor, Rosen worked in the television packaging division of ICM for four years. He began his career in the business affairs department of Columbia Pictures Television in 1984. He worked there for seven years, eventually moving into the development department. He left when he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Creative Affairs for Orion Television’s network television division. Born in Harrison, New York, Rosen studied political science at the University of California in Santa Barbara before continuing on to law school at Golden Gate University School.

husband:

David Obst

David Obst is the author of "Ecotage!" that was published in 1972, "Too Good To Be Forgotten: Changing America in the '60s and '70s" and "Too Good to Be Forgotten" in 1998.

Son:

Oliver Obst

Oly Obst graduated from Pitzer College and has worked at 3 Arts Entertainment for the last eight years. Previously, he served as an executive producer on FOX’s "The Mick" and "Ghosted". Oliver Obst is a producer and manager, known for The Invention of Lying, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and Barely Famous.

Friend:

Ann Druyan

Ann Druyan was born on the 13th of June, 1949 in Queens, New York, USA. Ann Druyan is a cowriter with the late Carl Sagan of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning series Cosmos. Their twenty-year professional collaboration included NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message and many speeches, articles, and books, including Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Comet. She was co-creator with Sagan of the motion picture Contact, and a credited contributor to his Pale Blue Dot, The Demon-Haunted World, and Billions and Billions. She is co-founder and CEO of Cosmos Studios, as well as Program Director of Cosmos 1, the first solar sailing spacecraft mission. She and Carl Sagan were married until his death in 1996. They have two children.