Amy Pascal

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.

Sony Pictures

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, along with Lynton, also oversaw Sony Pictures Television, which produces and distributes television programming for multiple platforms in the U.S. and internationally.

In 2013, Pascal was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She clashed with investor Daniel S. Loeb, who accused both Pascal and Lynton of "poor financial controls." According to the Financial Times: "She employed an assistant who earned more than $250,000 a year, and had use of a private jet and other perks in keeping with Hollywood's golden era rather than an age of austerity". At the end of 2014, Pascal was the only woman at Sony to earn over $1 million per annum, having earned US$3 million a year.

Pascal's contract with Sony was scheduled to expire in March 2015. On February 5, 2015, Pascal announced she would step down in May 2015. Pascal stated during a Women in the World discussion on February 11, 2015, that she had been "fired" by Sony.

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.

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."