Abigail Edna Disney (born January 24, 1960) is an American documentary film producer, philanthropist, and social activist. She produced the 2008 documentary ''

Pray the Devil Back to Hell ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'' is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail Disney. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary. The film had its thea ...

''. Disney and

Kathleen Hughes Kathleen Hughes (born Elizabeth Margaret von Gerkan; November 14, 1928) is an American actress. Early life Hughes' uncle, F. Hugh Herbert, was a playwright who authored ''Kiss and Tell'' and ''The Moon Is Blue''. Her desire to act was inspired ...

are producers and directors of ''Outstanding Social Issue Documentary'' Emmy Award winning ''The Armor of Light'' (2015) and ''The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales'' (2022, her brother, Tim Disney, executive producing).

Early life and education

Abigail Disney is the daughter of Patricia Ann ('' née'' Dailey) and

Roy E. Disney Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive for the Walt Disney Company, which was founded by his father, Roy O. Disney, and his uncle, Walt Disney. At the ti ...

. She is the granddaughter of

Roy O. Disney Roy Oliver Disney (; June 24, 1893 – December 20, 1971) was an American businessman and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company. He was the older brother of Walt Disney and the father of Roy E. Disney. Biography Early life Disney was bor ...

, who co-founded

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

with her great-uncle

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

. She was raised in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

where she attended the Buckley School. She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in English Literature from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1982. She would go on to complete a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in English Literature from Stanford University, and PhD in philosophy from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1994. While pursuing her PhD, Disney taught

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and American literature at

Iona College Iona University is a private Roman Catholic university with a main campus in New Rochelle, New York. It was founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and occupies a campus of in New Rochelle and a campus of in Bronxville, ...

in New Rochelle, New York, and wrote a dissertation on the role of romanticized violence in American life: ''Shadows of doubt: The American historical war novels of James Fenimore Cooper, Stephen Crane and Thomas Pynchon.''

Film production career

She turned to the family business of film production with a documentary film, ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'', directed by Gini Reticker. ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'' brought to light the work of Liberian

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

activist

Leymah Gbowee Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 February 1972) is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her ef ...

by telling the story about the critical role women played in bringing peace to war torn Liberia. ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'' won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008, and screened in 60 countries around the world on all seven continents. It had cumulative gross worldwide of $90,066. In 2007, she and Gini Reticker founded Fork Films, a New York-based production company. She is the president and CEO, and Reticker is the chief creative officer. In 2009, Fork Films and Film Sprout partnered together to create ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'' Global Peace Tour, a nine-month grassroots screening tour that culminated on the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

' International Day of Peace on September 21, 2009. The tour brought the film to 31 foreign countries and 235 U.S. cities in 45 different states. The film highlights the bravery and sacrifice of its lead figure, Leymah Gbowee, who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. The response to ''Pray the Devil Back to Hell'' led Disney to work on the five-part special series for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, ''Women, War & Peace'', which aired in 2011 and was the winner of the Overseas Press Club's

Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...

Award, a Gracie Award, a Television Academy Honor and the America Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award (for ''I Came to Testify''). This series created and executive produced by Abigail Disney, Pamela Hogan, and Gini Reticker, and looked at the role of women in war in the modern age, not just as victims of conflict, but as active agents for peace in their communities. Also in 2011, Disney received an

Athena Film Festival The Athena Film Festival is an annual film festival held at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. The festival takes place in February and focuses on films celebrating women and leadership. In addition to showing films, the fest ...

Award for her extraordinary use of film for social change. Disney executive produced ''The Trials of Spring'' (2015), which includes a feature-length documentary and six short films. Disney made her directorial debut with ''The Armor of Light,'' which follows anti-abortion

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

minister

Rob Schenck Robert Leonard Schenck (born 1958) is an American Evangelical clergyman who ministers to elected and appointed officials in Washington, D.C., and serves as president of a non-profit organization named for Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Since 1982, Schenck ...

Lucy McBath Lucia Kay McBath ( née Holman; born June 1, 1960) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Georgia's 6th congressional district. The district, once represented by Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, include ...

, the mother of teenager Jordan Davis, and

John Michael Phillips John Michael Phillips (born February 4, 1975) is an American lawyer, consumer and civil rights advocate, and legal commentator. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, New York, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Washington, DC. P ...

. Jordan Davis was gunned down in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

on November 23, 2012. Davis was unarmed at the time of his death, and his story has cast a spotlight on

stand-your-ground law A stand-your-ground law (sometimes called "line in the sand" or "no duty to retreat" law) provides that people may use deadly force when they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend against certain violent crimes (right of self-defense) ...

s in the United States. The film follows Schenck as he meets McBath, a pro-choice Christian, and her attorney John Phillips. ''The Armor of Light'' premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

in April 2015 before opening theatrically on October 30, 2015. In 2017, it won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. In 2018, Disney partnered with Killer Content and launched Level Forward, a new breed film, television and theater production company focused on projects that extend the influence and opportunity of creative excellence and supports new voices. In October 2022, Fork Films shut down.

Community activism and philanthropy

Disney and her husband Pierre Hauser created The Daphne Foundation in 1991 in order to fund programs that confront the causes and consequences of poverty in the five boroughs of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 2008, Disney launched Peace is Loud, a nonprofit organization that uses media and live events to spotlight women leaders who build a culture of peace. Disney is the founder and president. In 2011, Disney traveled with Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee to the Congo to spend a week working with other women peace activists and to explore ideas for building peace in their country. The following year, they visited Sri Lanka, where women activists launched the Sri Lankan Women's Agenda on Peace, Security and Development, inspired by Gbowee's legacy. In 2012, she renounced her share of the profits from the Disney family investment in the

Ahava Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, Limited ( he, אהבה, ''Love'') is an Israeli cosmetics company with headquarters in Lod that manufactures skin care products made of mud and mineral-based compounds from the Dead Sea. The company has flagship ...

cosmetics company whose factory is located in a

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

settlement. She stated "I cannot in good conscience profit from what is technically the 'plunder' or 'pillage' of occupied natural resources." For legal reasons, she could not withdraw her investments, and therefore donated the investments and profits "to organizations working to end this illegal exploitation." In May 2015, Disney joined Gbowee and 28 other international women peacebuilders to cross the 2-mile wide De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) separating

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

in an act of solidarity with Korean women and to call for an end to the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The peacebuilders headed international peace symposia in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, where they listened to Korean women and shared experiences of mobilizing women to end conflict. She is part of the group The Patriotic Millionaires. This is a group of wealthy people who support hiking taxes on the rich. They sent a clear demand for higher tax rates at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in Davos in January 2020. In June 2021, Disney published an opinion piece in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' criticising practices by wealthy individuals who reduce their tax burden and protect their wealth across generations through practices such as "offsetting income with losses in unrelated businesses; structuring assets to grow rather than generate income, then borrowing against those growing assets for cash needs; and deducting interest payments and state taxes from taxable income".

Criticism of the Disney Corporation

On April 21, 2019, Disney, through several tweets, criticized Disney CEO Bob Iger's compensation. In 2018, Iger earned a $66 million package, while in 2019, his compensation package was estimated to be approximately $35 million. One month before this statement, she had claimed that CEOs are generally "paid far too much," saying that "there is nobody on Earth

ho is Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri Mo ...

worth 500 times his median workers' pay." On April 22, the

Disney Corporation 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 ...

responded in a statement that the company has made "historic investments" in its workers' pay and benefits, and defended the CEO's compensation, which it said is "90% performance-based." The company stated that Iger "has delivered exceptional value for shareholders." On April 23, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' published an op-ed by Abigail Disney where she again criticized the "never eforeso profitable" Disney corporation and called for

pay equity Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

reform. In July 2019, Abigail Disney criticized working conditions at

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

after a meeting with employees at their union office. She stated that the Disneyland employees she talked to have to forage for food in other people's garbage. Again turning to Twitter in 2020, Disney publicly criticized the corporation for furloughing hundreds of thousands of low paid workers during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. In May 2020, Disney gave a TED talk in which she criticized the pay rates of employees at Disney theme parks. Disney said that when she was growing up, a custodian at Disneyland could make enough money to feed a family, own a modest home, and access decent health care. Today, "three out of four of the people who smile when you walk in, who help you comfort that crying baby, who maybe help you have the best vacation you ever have, can't consistently put food on the table." She added, "Disney has turned a pretty profit on the idea that families are a kind of magic, that love is important, that imaginations matter. That's why it turns your stomach a little bit when I tell you that Cinderella might be sleeping in her car." In 2022, Disney joined current and past Disney employees in criticizing Bob Chapek for refusing to make a statement concerning

Florida House Bill 1557 The Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly known as the Don't Say Gay act or as the Don't Say Gay or Trans act, is a Florida state law passed in 2022 that enacts several new statutes for public schools in Florida, which prohibits pu ...

, which is officially named the Parental Rights in Education Bill and was passed in February of that same year. The law prohibits the teaching of gender identity in schools prior to 4th grade.

Personal life

Disney married Pierre Norman Hauser in 1988. She lives in New York City and has four children. As of 2019, Abigail Disney's net worth was approximately $120 million.

Filmography

Film

Awards and recognition

Awards

* The Women's Image Network Awards (2015) Woman of the Year Honoree * Global Women's Rights Awards (2009) presented by the Feminist Majority Foundation, with Gini Reticker and Leymah Gbowee * Auburn Lives of Commitment Award (2009), presented by Auburn Theological Seminary * 1st Annual Media Awards (2009), presented by

Women's Media Center Women's Media Center (WMC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit women's organization in the United States founded in 2005 by writers and activists Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem.

, with Gini Reticker * Visionary Social Change Award (2011), presented by African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) * Athena Award (2011), presented by

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

, the Athena Center for Leadership Studies and

, with Gini Reticker * International Advocate for Peace Award (2011), presented by

Cardozo Law School The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Associate Just ...

's Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution * 2012

Gracie Award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...

for Outstanding Producer-News/Nonfiction for Women, War & Peace (2012), presented by The Gracie Awards * The James Park Morton Interfaith Award (2012), presented by the Interfaith Center of New York, with Leymah Gbowee * Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice (2014), presented by the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution * Legacy Award (2014), presented by

Women for Afghan Women Women for Afghan Women, also known as WAW, is the largest non-government Afghan women's rights organization in the world, founded in April 2001. It is dedicated to protecting the rights of Afghan women and girls. The staff are mostly Afghans and W ...

* Public Health Change Champion Award (2014), presented by The Public Health Institute * IWMF (International Women's Media Foundation) Courage in Journalism Awards: Leadership Honoree (2015), presented by IWMF

References

Abigail Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death ( 1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later marri ...

People from North Hollywood, Los Angeles