Biografi
Laurie MacDonald began her career as a documentary and news producer at KRON, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She later joined Columbia Pictures as Vice President of Production. After four years, MacDonald launched her own production company with her husband, screenwriter and producer Walter Parkes. Together, they produced the Men In Black series, Gladiator, Flight, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Ring, The Mask of Zorro, Twister, Amistad, as well as screen adaptations of The Kite Runner and Steven Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, among many others. Films produced or executive produced by MacDonald and Parkes have collectively grossed over $6 billion worldwide.
In 1994, MacDonald and Parkes became co-heads of Amblin Entertainment, and two years later were named co-presidents of the feature division at the newly formed DreamWorks Studios. During their leadership, the studio achieved the rare feat of winning three consecutive Best Picture Oscars: American Beauty, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind, with the latter two produced in partnership with Universal Studios.
In 2008, they left their executive roles at DreamWorks to sign an overall producing deal under their company Parkes + MacDonald, where they produced The Trial of the Chicago 7, written by Aaron Sorkin. In 2010, MacDonald and Parkes partnered with ImageNation Abu Dhabi to develop and produce films for the international market. Through this collaboration, they produced several films along with two feature-length documentaries, He Named Me Malala and Free Solo, the latter earning an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
