In 1989 Lynda Obst formed Lynda Obst Productions, a feature films production company. The company has a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, where Obst has produced such films as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, and Abandon, the directing debut of Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan.

LOP was originally based at Columbia Pictures where Obst produced Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King (with Debra Hill), Nora Ephron’s directing debut, This Is My Life, and executive produced Ephron’s second film, Sleepless in Seattle.

While based at Fox, Obst produced The Siege, starring Denzel Washington and Annette Bening, Hope Floats, starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr., One Fine Day, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney and Someone Like You, starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman. Lynda executive produced Contact, starring Jodie Foster for Warner Brothers in 1997. In 1999, she executive produced The 60s, a two part miniseries for NBC.

Lynda Obst grew up in Suburban New York and graduated from Pomona College in 1972. She attended graduate school at Columbia University in Philosophy. After Columbia, she began her film and journalism career as the editor/author of The Rolling Stone’s History of the Sixties, a compendium of the era’s people, politics, and popular culture. She then became an editor at the New York Times Magazine, where she covered such diverse topics as science, philosophy, and publishing, before being recruited to Hollywood in 1979 by Peter Guber, then chairman of Casablanca/Polygram. There she developed Flashdance and Clue, as well as beginning the development of Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. In 1982, Lynda joined the David Geffen company where she worked on the development and production of a number of films, including Risky Business and After Hours.

In 1985, partnered with Debra Hill to form Hill/Obst Productions at Paramount Pictures. Among their films were Chris Columbus’ directing debut, Adventures in Babysitting, as well as Heartbreak Hotel, which he wrote and directed.

Lynda’s non-fiction book: Hello He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches was first published by Little Brown and debuted at #1 on the LA Times Best Seller list. It was published by Broadway Books in paperback in 1997, once again debuting on the Best Seller List where it remained for 12 weeks. Hello He Lied was recently adapted into a documentary by the award winning directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini of the highly acclaimed American Splendor and aired on AMC.

Lynda was the commencement speaker for the class of 2000 and awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts at Pomona College. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, LA Times Book Review, does the annual Oscar coverage with film critic David Edelstein for New York Magazine, and has written for Texas Monthly, The Nation, and Harper’s Magazine.

Lynda’s teaching and public speaking experience has burgeoned since the publication of Hello, He Lied. She has taught a Master’s screenwriting class at USC and a course in producing at the University of Texas. She has also taught several courses at The Learning Annex, where she is one of their most requested lecturers. She has given seminars on the film industry around the world, and is a regular moderator and speaker at the annual LA Times Book Festival.