Kathleen Kennedy
Biography
Kathleen Kennedy (born June 5, 1953) is an American film producer and president of Lucasfilm. In 1981, she co-founded the production company Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and her eventual husband Frank Marshall.
Her first film as a producer was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). A decade later, again with Spielberg, she produced the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s.
In 1992, she co-founded The Kennedy/Marshall Company with her husband, Frank Marshall. On October 30, 2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm after The Walt Disney Company acquired the company for $4.2 billion. She received the Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.
As the president of Lucasfilm, she oversaw the development, production, and release of projects such as the Star Wars sequel trilogy including, The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), as well as the Star Wars standalone films Rogue One (2016), and Solo (2018), and the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
She has also produced various Star Wars series for Disney+ including The Mandalorian (2019–present), The Book of Boba Fett (2021), Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), and Andor (2022–present).
Kennedy earned great success as a producer of numerous films directed by Steven Spielberg which have earned over $11 billion worldwide, including five of the fifty highest-grossing movies in film history. As a producer, she has received eight Best Picture Academy Award nominations.
Kennedy was born in Berkeley, California, to Dione Marie "Dede" (née Dousseau), a one-time theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy, a judge and attorney. She has two sisters. Her twin sister, Connie, formerly a location manager in British Columbia, Canada, is now the executive producer of the Virtual Production company Profile Studios.
Her other sister is Dana Middleton-Silberstein, a television host and anchor, and press secretary/communications director for former Governor Gary Locke (D-WA).
Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding, California, in 1971. She continued her education at San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications and film.
In her final year, Kennedy gained employment at a local San Diego TV station, KCST (now KNSD), taking on various roles including camera operator, video editor, floor director, and finally KCST news production coordinator.
