Terry Semel

Semel was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mildred (née Wenig) and Ben Semel. His father was a women's coat designer and his mother was a bus company executive. He was raised in Bay Terrace, a community in Bayside, Queens. He was the middle child, and has two sisters. At the age of 23, he graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn with a B.S. degree in accounting.

Semel began working at Warner Bros. in 1965 as a trainee. From 1970 to 1972, Semel worked for CBS corporation's theatrical film production company, Cinema Center Films, as domestic sales manager.

CBS closed Cinema Center Films in 1972 and Semel moved to Walt Disney Productions, where he was vice president in charge of theatrical distribution until 1975.

In 1975, Semel returned to Warner Bros. Distribution as president, then moved into studio operations as an executive vice president in 1979. Frank Wells announced he was taking a less active role the company in 1981, Semel became president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros. on January 1, 1982.

In 1994, Warner Bros. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert A. Daly announced that Semel would become his co-chairman and CEO. The following year, the two men also became co-chairmen and co-chief executives of Warner Music following the firing of Michael J. Fuchs.

Both Daly and Semel resigned from Warner Bros. in July 1999.

In 1966, he married Maryann Soloway; they divorced in 1974.

In 1977, he married Jane Bovingdon, a former secretary to the actress Susan George.

He has a son, Eric Scott Semel (b. March 15, 1969), and three daughters, Courtenay Semel (b. November 11, 1979), Lily Bovingdon Semel (b. 1985), and Kate Bovingdon Semel (b. March, 1992)..

In 2004, the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute was renamed the Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Semel developed Alzheimer's disease, and began living in a nursing facility in 2016.

Yahoo!–China cooperation controversy

As CEO, Semel approved Yahoo!'s cooperation with Chinese officials to release previously confidential Yahoo! information to the Chinese government. This action by Yahoo! was not well received and he showed signs of regret as to how that information was being used. For example, in a widely publicized exchange at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference, he was asked if Yahoo! would have cooperated with Nazi Germany. In response, Semel, who is Jewish, stated, "I don't know how I would have felt then." He added, "I don't feel good about what's happening in China today." When questioned on this topic in a Q & A discussion with Peter Bazalgette at The Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention in 2005, his response was "We have to abide by the laws in the countries in which we operate."