Amy Pascal

Amy Pascal (born March 25, 1958) is an American film producer and business executive. She served as the Chairwoman of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Co-Chairperson of SPE, including Sony Pictures Television, from 2006 until 2015. She has overseen the production and distribution of many films and television programs, and was co-chairperson during the 2014 Sony Pictures hack. The leak uncovered multiple emails from Pascal including racial jokes aimed at then-president Barack Obama. She left Sony and Pascal later admitted that she was fired from the company.

Pascal started her own production company, Pascal Pictures, which made its debut with the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. In 2017, she produced Spider-Man: Homecoming, Molly's Game and The Post. She has received two Academy Award for Best Picture nominations, for producing The Post and Little Women, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for producing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Pascal was born on March 25, 1958, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Anthony H. Pascal, was an economic researcher at the RAND Corporation who wrote about African American social inequality and the cost of AIDS. Her mother, Barbara Pascal, was a librarian and owner of an art bookstore, Artworks. Her family is Jewish. Pascal attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, then worked as a bookkeeper at Crossroads School while getting her international relations degree at UCLA.

Pascal started her career as a secretary working for producer Tony Garnett at the independent production company Kestrel Films. From 1986 to 1987, she served as Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox.

Pascal joined Columbia Pictures in 1988, where she was responsible for the development of films including: Groundhog Day, Little Women, Awakenings, and A League of Their Own. She left Columbia in 1994 and served for two years as the President of Production for Turner Pictures while Scott Sassa was president of Turner Entertainment. During her time at Turner, Pascal hired Damon Lee as a development director.

Pascal rejoined Columbia in 1996 as the studio's president after Turner Pictures merged with Warner Bros. In 1999, Pascal became Chair of Columbia Pictures.

Pascal was named Co-Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment in September 2006. She also served as Chairman of SPE's Motion Picture Group from December 2003 to February 2015. Pascal and SPE's Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton led all of SPE's lines of business, including: motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies.

Pascal has overseen the production and distribution of many films, including the Spider-Man franchise; the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, the first Bond film to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office; The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons; Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Hotel Transylvania; and Best Picture Oscar nominees American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball and The Social Network.

Pascal serves on the Honorary Committee of the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles. She has made charitable contributions to Teen Line.

She was awarded the 2008 Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles which combats antisemitism and promotes human rights and tolerance. She received the award at the 2008 National Tribute Dinner, an annual fundraiser which raised US$2 million for the center. In her acceptance speech, she said: "I believe in what the museum is committed to: not just the literal event of the Holocaust but not letting anything like that happen again."

On December 9, 2014, a group called "Guardians of Peace" hacked into Sony's computer system, which led to the theft of internal company documents. The fallout became a major international diplomatic incident in North Korea–United States relations.

In subsequent news coverage, Pascal and producer Scott Rudin were noted to have had an exchange in these documents about Pascal's upcoming encounter with President Barack Obama. Pascal joked that the president, who is black, would possibly enjoy Django Unchained and The Butler (films which deal with slavery in the United States and the pre-civil rights era) or the comedy Think Like a Man which features an ensemble cast of black comedians. Rudin responded: "Ride Along, I bet he likes Kevin Hart."

News reports branded the exchange as "racially insensitive", while others called it "racist". Pascal responded by saying that "the content of my emails were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am."

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton suggested the apology was not sufficient, compared her to Donald Sterling, and called for more diversity in Sony's hiring pool. The screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin denounced the media's focus on Pascal's communications and many other emails released by the hack in an opinion piece for The New York Times, characterizing the coverage as "giving material aid to criminals" and writing that "at least the hackers are doing it for a cause. The press is doing it for a nickel." In the popular press, coverage of the story was extended, with actress and producer Lisa Kudrow suggesting that Pascal should have known better, adding: "Don't write anything you don't want broadcast". At the Writers Guild of America Awards 2014 on January 7, 2015, Kudrow, who was the presenter, mentioned the Sony hack again, arguing that it was disturbing "because Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal thought that was witty banter".

Color of Change, a civil rights organization, launched a petition in December 2014 calling upon Sony to fire Pascal from her role, arguing that "Pascal's comments are confirmation of the manipulative, exploitative relationship corporations like Sony have with Black folks." They added: "We must hold Pascal accountable here; not just for her horrendous comments, but also for her role at the helm of a corporate agenda that views Black America as one big, lucrative joke."

Pascal married Bernard Weinraub, a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and playwright, in 1997, with whom she has a son. They reside in Brentwood, Los Angeles.