Nina Jacobson has built an impressive career spanning over 25 years. She achieved enormous success as a senior film executive at three major motion picture studios before founding the independent company Color Force in 2010. Her first film as producer, and the first for Color Force, was Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which grossed over $75 million worldwide and spawned three popular sequels. Jacobson also produced The Hunger Games franchise, based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novels, which together have grossed $2.9 billion worldwide.
Jacobson and her Color Force partner Brad Simpson won Emmy® and Golden Globe® awards for Color Force’s first foray into television, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which they executive produced alongside Ryan Murphy. The show, installment one of an anthology series, debuted on FX in February 2016 to critical acclaim and record ratings, and went on to receive a remarkable 22 Emmy Award nominations and nine wins, including the Emmy for Best Limited Series. The series’ second installment, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, premiered in January 2018 and received 18 Emmy nominations and seven wins, including the Emmy for Best Limited Series. Jacobson is currently in production on Impeachment: American Crime Story and the first season of Y: The Last Man, adapted from DC comic book of the same name. She also recently concluded work on the critically acclaimed third season of drama Pose with Ryan Murphy.
On the feature side, Jacobson recently produced Joe Robert Cole’s directorial debut, All Day and a Night, and The Goldfinch, based on the critically acclaimed novel by Donna Tartt. Jacobson also produced the groundbreaking feature film Crazy Rich Asians based on Kevin Kwan’s international bestseller for Warner Bros., and Ben is Back, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim.
Prior to forming Color Force, Jacobson was president of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group where she oversaw script development and film production for Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. During her tenure, 15 of Jacobson’s projects grossed over $100 million domestically, including Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Princess Diaries. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise became the highest grossing film in Disney’s history, generating almost three billion dollars in worldwide box office.
Before joining the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, Jacobson was a senior film executive at DreamWorks SKG, where she developed What Lies Beneath and originated the idea of DreamWorks’ first animated feature, Antz. She also held positions at Universal, Parkes/MacDonald Productions, Silver Pictures and began her career at Disney Sunday Movie.
Jacobson is a graduate of Brown University and currently lives in Santa Monica with her wife Jennifer, their three children, two dogs and a cat.
