Jeffrey Katzenberg was born on 21 December 1950, in New York City, USA into a Jewish family, and is a businessman, film producer, studio executive, and the current Chief Executive Officer of “DreamWorks Animation”,
So just how rich is Jeffrey Katzenberg? Authoritative sources estimate that Katzenberg has found success in the world of animated film to the tune of a net worth of over $860 million, accumulated while overseeing such instant classics of animation as the 2001 “Shrek” and its sequels, the 2005 animated comedy “Madagascar” and the wildly successful 2010 animated action-fantasy film “How to Train Your Dragon”. Katzenberg’s vision has had a huge influence on the direction of not just “DreamWorks”, but of animation in general, and this is amply reflected by his impressive net worth.
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Jeffrey Katzenberg Net Worth $860 Million
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Jeffrey Katzenberg has had a connection with art and business since his very early days – his mother, Anne Katzenberg, was an artist, and father Walterwas a successful stockbroker, and hence Jeffrey Katzenberg was afforded a prestigious education in the private Ivy League preparatory Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Aged only fourteen, Katzenberg would become involved with the electoral campaign of future New York mayor John Lindsay, but nothing would come of this brief dabble in politics – save, perhaps, a chance for Katzenberg to get noticed.
Jeffrey Katzenberg would go on to find employ with Paramount Pictures, where he worked his way up to being the assistant of then-Chairman Barry Diller. Katzenberg would have a hand in the 1979 revival of the “Star Trek” franchise with Robert Wise and Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, and the success of this science-fiction film had a hand in helping Katzenberg make his way to being Paramount’s President of Production. Working closely with the President of “Paramount Pictures” at the time, Michael Eisner, would lead to Jeffrey Katzenberg moving to work for “The Walt Disney Company”, when Eisner became its CEO. Katzenberg was tasked with reviving the flagging studio, and he had a hand in changing the direction of Disney’s animation department. Under Katzenberg’s oversight, “Disney” went on to release such animated classics as the 1989 “The Little Mermaid”, the 1991 “Beauty and the Beast”, and in 1994 “The Lion King” – and this string of successes went a long way in cementing Katzenberg’s reputation as one of the leading visionaries in his field, and in boosting his ever-growing net worth.
By 1994, Jeffrey Katzenberg had left “Disney” to collaborate with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in founding the DreamWorks studio. Initially focusing on traditional animation, after several lack-lustre box office performances, Katzenberg decided that computer animated films were the way forward. Under this vision, DreamWorks Animation found such enormous success that it would become an independent associated company in 2004, releasing several high-grossing films including “Shrek” and “How to Train Your Dragon”. Under Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation has hardly had a single unprofitable quarter, and continues to be one of the world’s leading animation studios. Katzenberg continues to have an active hand in the direction his company takes,
In his personal life, Jeffrey Katzenberg lives with his wife of over 40 years, Marilyn(m. 1975). They have two children, Laura and David Katzenberg, and David is an active director and producer in television. Jeffrey has been known to use his considerable wealth to further various causes, including a multi-million donation to Boston University and being a trustee of the “AIDS Project Los Angeles”.
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