Cheryl Boone Isaacs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cheryl Boone Isaacs
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Boone Isaacs in 2015 at the announcement of nominees for the 87th Academy Awards
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| Born |
Cheryl Boone
1949 (age 75–76) |
| Education | Whittier College |
| Occupation | Public relations executive |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Title | President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
| Term | 4 years |
| Predecessor | Hawk Koch |
| Successor | John Bailey |
| Spouse(s) |
Stanley Isaacs
(m. 1982) |
| Children | 1 |
Cheryl Boone Isaacs (born 1949) is an American expert in movie marketing and public relations. She is best known for her important role at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). This is the group that gives out the famous Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars!
Cheryl Boone Isaacs served on the AMPAS Board of Governors for 21 years. In 2013, she made history by becoming the 35th president of AMPAS. She was the first African American person to hold this top position. She was also only the third woman to lead the Academy. Later, in 2022, she became a founding director at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
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Growing Up in Springfield
Cheryl Boone Isaacs was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her father worked for the post office, and her mother was a homemaker. She grew up in a middle-class family.
Cheryl was the youngest of four children. She had two older brothers, Ashley Jr. and Richard, and an older sister, Velma. She went to Classical High School, which is now called Springfield Central High School. She graduated in 1967.
In 1971, she earned a degree in political science from Whittier College. During her college years, she even studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Her Exciting Career
After college, Cheryl Boone Isaacs worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am. When she was 25, she followed her older brother, Ashley Boone Jr., to Hollywood. He was already a movie executive.
Working in Movie Publicity
In 1977, Cheryl started her career in movie publicity at Columbia Pictures. Her very first job was helping to promote the famous Steven Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
She then worked for other film companies. She helped promote movies like The Stunt Man and Love at First Bite. She eventually became a Vice President in charge of advertising and publicity around the world. Later, she promoted films such as The Right Stuff.
In 1984, she joined Paramount Pictures. She became the worldwide publicity director. She held this important job for 13 years! While at Paramount, she helped create the marketing plans for Oscar-winning movies. These included Forrest Gump and Braveheart. She worked with many talented women at Paramount during that time.
From 1997 to 1999, she was President of Theatrical Marketing for New Line Cinema. Here, she promoted movies like The Wedding Singer and Boogie Nights. She was the first Black woman to lead a studio's marketing department.
After that, Cheryl Boone Isaacs started her own company, CBI Enterprises, Inc. Through her company, she continued to work on publicity for many films. This included Oscar-winning movies like The King's Speech and The Artist.
Leading the Academy
Cheryl Boone Isaacs has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1987. All the work for the Academy, even for leaders, is done as a volunteer.
As President of AMPAS, Cheryl Boone Isaacs made big changes. She helped remove the limit on how many members could join the Academy. She also invited over 400 new members. Many of these new members were young and came from different backgrounds.
Boone Isaacs worked hard to make the Academy more diverse. She wanted to make sure there were more people of different races and genders. She also focused on improving mentorship programs for young filmmakers. She helped improve the student version of the Academy Awards.
Part of her job as President was to oversee the famous Academy Awards ceremony. She also oversaw the Governors Awards. These awards give special lifetime achievement honors to people in film. Unlike the Oscars, the Governors Awards are not shown on TV. She also helped create an AMPAS museum in Los Angeles.
At the 2015 Governors Awards, Boone Isaacs started a new plan called A2020. This plan focused on improving diversity in Hollywood. It looked at age, gender, race, and different viewpoints. It was a five-year plan to help the film industry hire more diverse people. Famous director Spike Lee praised her for her work to make Hollywood more diverse.
Special Honors
Cheryl Boone Isaacs has received many awards for her amazing work:
- 2013: Black Entertainment Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA)
- 2013: Essence Magazine's Trailblazer Award
- 2014: African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Horizon Award
- 2014: NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame
- 2014: Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts O.L. Halsell Filmmaker-in-Residence
Her Family Life
Cheryl Boone Isaacs is married to Stanley Isaacs. He is a film producer, director, and writer. They live in Los Angeles and have a son named Cooper Boone Isaacs.
