Gigi Pritzker (born July 27, 1962) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

and film producer. She is a member of the

Pritzker family The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and List of wealthiest families, one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Riche ...

. Pritzker is co-founder of the film production and financing company

Odd Lot Entertainment OddLot Entertainment was an American independent film studio, founded by Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete in 2001, which dealt with financing and production of films. History OddLot Entertainment In 2013 OddLot has produced a cinematic versio ...

, producing several films including '' Rabbit Hole'', ''

Drive Drive or The Drive may refer to: Motoring * Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle * Road trip, a journey on roads Roadways Roadways called "drives" may include: * Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive" ...

'', and '' Hell or High Water''. Pritzker has also produced for TV, including ''

The Dragon Prince ''The Dragon Prince'', also known as ''The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos'' after the release of season 4, is a fantasy computer-animated television series created for Netflix by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, produced by Wonderstorm and ...

'', which won the 2020

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Children's Animated Series.

Early life

Jean Pritzker was born to the wealthy

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the daughter of Marian "Cindy" (née Friend) and

Jay Pritzker Jay Arthur Pritzker (August 26, 1922 – January 23, 1999) was an American entrepreneur, conglomerate organizer, and member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Pritzker was born in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents who emi ...

. Her maternal grandfather was

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

-born jurist Hugo Friend. Her father, along with his brothers,

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

and

Donald Pritzker Donald Nicholas Pritzker (October 31, 1932 – May 6, 1972) was an American entrepreneur, businessman. He is a member of the Pritzker family and served as the president of Hyatt, where he helped grow the hotel chain. He is the father of ...

, diversified the Chicago-based family business, the

Marmon Group Marmon Group is an American industrial holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; founded by Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker in 1953 (as Colson Corporation), it has been held by the Berkshire Hathaway group since 2013. It owns companies ...

. They created the

Hyatt Hotel Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

chain in 1957 and owned

Braniff Airlines Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

from 1983 until 1988, later divesting many assets.Chicago Tribune: "Pritzker family could soon own less than half of Hyatt" By Julie Wernau
April 19, 2011 Pritzker graduated with a BA in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

.Michael Cieply
New York Times: "A Movie Mogul Rising"
January 14, 2013.

Career

After taking courses in

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

making, Pritzker, along with

Deborah Del Prete Deborah Del Prete is an American producer. Her son, actor and musician Terence Jay has appeared in/composed a number of films that she has produced. She is the cofounder of OddLot Entertainment along with Gigi Pritzker Gigi Pritzker (born Ju ...

, co-founded the

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

-based film production and financing company

. In 2010, Odd Lot produced the film '' Rabbit Hole'', starring

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

, and in 2011, the film ''

'', starring

Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received ...

.Chicago Tribune: "The Pritzker family tree" By Melissa Harris and Julie Wernau
December 18, 2011 In November 2013, Odd Lot released ''

Ender's Game ''Ender's Game'' is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they dub ...

'' a film, co-starring

Harrison Ford Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America. He is the recipient o ...

and based on

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

's science fiction novel. Prizker, along with her with partner Ted Rawlins, co-lead the company ''Relevant Theatricals'', which develops and produces live

stage productions Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, including the play ''

Million Dollar Quartet "Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session ...

''.

Personal life

Prizker is married to Michael PuckerCrain's Chicago Business: "Gigi, Michael Pucker donate sculpture to Lurie Children's Hospital" by Shia Kapos
October 24, 2012 and has three children.

Filmography

Pritzker was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

;Thanks

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pritzker, Gigi American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American billionaires Film producers from Illinois American women film producers Female billionaires Stanford University alumni Gigi Living people 1962 births People from Chicago American independent film production company founders 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women