Karen Robson (born 19 March 1957) is an Australian

entertainment law Entertainment law, also referred to as media law, is legal services provided to the entertainment industry. These services in entertainment law overlap with intellectual property law. Intellectual property has many moving parts that include tradema ...

yer, producer and briefly an actress, best known for her portrayal of the mysterious brunette Irma in the

Peter Weir Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born August 21, 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He's known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ''Gallipoli'' (1981), ''Witness ...

cult classic '' Picnic at Hanging Rock''. She is based in Los Angeles and is a partner in the law firm Pryor Cashman LLP, where she specializes in

film finance Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the potential value of a proposed film. In the United States, the value is typically based on a fo ...

Early life

She was born in

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

, Malaysia.

Career

Actress

Robson made her acting debut in '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'', a 1975 film by

. She played Irma, one of the three girls who went missing and the only one who was found. Her only other acting credit was in the 2003 film ''

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

'' (which she helped produce), in the role of the receptionist.

Entertainment lawyer and producer

Robson has helped produce films ranging from

Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...

's ''

Affliction Affliction or Afflicted may refer to: Books * ''Affliction'' (novel), a 2013 Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novel by Laurell K. Hamilton * ''Affliction'', a novel by Russell Banks, basis of the 1998 film Film and TV * ''Affliction'' (1997 film), ...

'' to

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

's ''

Cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

''. She has represented a significant portion of producers, lenders, equity investors and distributors in a wide range of financings, including senior and mezzanine debt and equity, international co-productions, U.S. and foreign tax incentivized financings and crowd funding, with an added focus on animation and TV joint ventures. She represents a variety of financiers, banks, equity investors, high-profile independent producers and production companies for which she structures film finance transactions, as well as provides production legal representation. Over the past sixteen years she has handled financing on multiple picture deals and single pictures, television mini-series and major documentaries. Some of her practice has included an overall financing distribution arrangement for a major independent producer with United Artists; a $200 million credit facility for a production company based at Warner Brothers on behalf of a bank syndicate; and tax incentive international film financing for a major independent producer. She worked on the first HD 3D film, released by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in April 2003, the directorial debut of

Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...

titled ''

The Water Diviner ''The Water Diviner'' is a 2014 drama film starring and directed by Russell Crowe, in his directorial debut, and written by Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight. The film is loosely based on the book of the same name written by Andrew Anastasios ...

'',

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...

’s groundbreaking digital 3D

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...

feature underwater documentary ''Ghosts of the Abyss'', ReelFx’s animated feature film ''Free Birds'',

Edward R. Pressman Edward Rambach Pressman (April 11, 1943 – January 17, 2023) was an American film producer and founder of the production company Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation. Pressman was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Lynn and J ...

’s ''The Crow'' and its spinoffs including the ''Crow'' feature film reboot, and a series of international TV co-productions for a major US basic cable network. She has also worked extensively in international media and strategic entertainment investments and acquisitions in India, China, Japan, the Middle East, UK, Australia, Europe (particularly Germany) and Latin America. She has represented a number of slate equity funds for production funding for independently financed films and TV. She has also worked on international co-production pacts involving equity and distribution for major U.S. motion pictures with budgets in excess of a $100 million.

Personal life

Robson is married to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian-born film director

Ramin Niami Ramin Niami ( fa, رامین نیامی) is an Iranian film director, producer, actor and writer. In 1989, he was editor of ''The Houseguest'', a film directed by Franz Harland. During his career, he has participated in more than twenty documenta ...

and has two children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robson, Karen 1957 births Living people Entertainment lawyers Australian film actresses