Lauren Shuler Donner

American film producer

Lauren Diane Shuler Donner (born June 23, 1949) is an American film producer, who specializes in mainstream youth and family oriented entertainment. She owned The Donners' Company with her late husband, director Richard Donner. Her films have grossed about $5.5 billion worldwide including major contributions from the X Men film series.

Donner was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She studied film at Boston University, specializing in production and editing. Following the advice of a teacher, she moved to Los Angeles in hopes of entering the entertainment industry.

As Donner worked in Los Angeles as an assistant editor of educational and medical films, a chance meeting at NBC headquarters led her to leave her data there. After being taught about cameras by the crew of The Tonight Show, Shuler asked NBC to work on the local news. Afterwards she freelanced on Metromedia, working on rock concert shoots, sitcoms and TV movies. Donner was a rare camerawoman in a male dominated field, being the first woman admitted to the IATSE Electrical and Camera Guild #659. Eventually Donner decided to work as an associate producer, in 1976 joining ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Her input on the script of Thank God It's Friday (1978) led her to become an associate producer for that film. Next she made her television producing debut in 1979 with the acclaimed Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill, a television film written and directed by Joel Schumacher in the style of Robert Altman's Nashville. She got the job by directly asking NBC programming director Charles Engel. Her experience with Schumacher and Hughes led them to invite her to produce St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986), both seminal films of the Brat Pack period. She received an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters degree from Boston University in 2019 and was the Commencement Speaker for COM at Boston University. She and Richard Donner were honored by The American Cancer Society in 2006. The Donners were given The Loop Award by LupusLA in 2008. The Donners were also given a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Ojai Film Festival in November 2008. In 2013, the Donners were honored by The Women's Guild of Cedar Sinai Medical Center. In 2020 Shuler Donner was awarded The Golden Eddie by The American Cinema Editors (ACE). Her husband Richard Donner died on July 5, 2021, at the age of 91.