Career

Obst is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California and then studied Philosophy in the graduate program at Columbia University. Later she worked as an editor at The New York Times before moving to Los Angeles with her then-husband David Obst. Starting at The Geffen Film Company as a d-girl, her first major project was developing the scripts that would eventually become Flashdance.

Obst partnered with Debra Hill in 1986. The partnership would go on to produce Adventures in Babysitting, Heartbreak Hotel and The Fisher King, among other projects. Following The Fisher King (1991), Obst and Hill parted ways; she became an in-studio producer going on to produce such notable films as Sleepless in Seattle, One Fine Day, Someone Like You, Contact and The Siege.

In 1989, Obst founded the production company Lynda Obst Productions under license of Columbia Pictures, but moved it to 20th Century Fox in 1993.

In 2009, Obst completed principal photography as producer on the Ricky Gervais-Matthew Robinson co-writing and directing debut, The Invention of Lying (originally titled "This Side of the Truth"), starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner. The film was released in October 2009. She was also the producer of Gurinder Chadha's Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, released by Nickelodeon in 2008. In 2014, Obst collaborated with director Christopher Nolan to co-produce Interstellar, a science-fiction drama starring Matthew McConnaughey and Anne Hathaway. This marked the first time her production company, Lynda Obst Productions, was credited for a production.

Obst is the author of the memoir Hello, He Lied (1996), which details her experiences in the modern studio system. She was one of the central figures in the battle over the Richard Preston article Crisis in the Hot Zone. Rick Rosen, one of the founders of the Endeavor talent agency, is Obst's younger brother.

Filmography

Film

Flashdance (1983) - associate producer Adventures in Babysitting (1987) - producer Heartbreak Hotel (1988) - producer The Fisher King (1991) - producer This Is My Life (1992) - producer Sleepless in Seattle (1993) - executive producer Bad Girls (1994) - executive producer One Fine Day (1996) - producer Contact (1997) - executive producer

The Siege (1998) - producer Hope Floats (1998) - producer Someone Like You (2001) - producer Abandon (2002) - producer How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) - producer The Invention of Lying (2009) - producer Interstellar (2014) - producer

Television

• The '60s (1999) - executive producer
• Hot in Cleveland (2010-present) - executive producer
• The Soul Man (2012-present) - executive producer
• Helix (2014-2015) - executive producer

Publications

• The Sixties (Random House: New York, NY, 1978. ISBN 978-0394732398)
• Dirty Dreams: A Novel (New Amer Library Trade: New York, NY, 1990. ISBN 0-453-00731-7)
• Hello, He Lied (Little, Brown & Company: New York, NY, 1996. ISBN 0-316-62211-7)
• Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business (Simon & Schuster: New York, NY, 2013. ISBN 978-1476727745)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]