Dawn Ostroff is president of Condé Nast Entertainment (CNE), and helped found the division in 2011 when Condé Nast decided to build a thriving digital video, film, and television business based on its iconic brands and assets.
CNE currently produces over 5,000 videos annually, garnering over 1 billion views a month. The company’s digital content consistently ranks in the top 25 of unique viewers in the overall comScore industry rankings ahead of other major content creators like Buzzfeed, Vice, Hearst, ESPN and Vox.
In addition to CNE’s thriving digital video division, Ostroff oversees the company’s feature film and television operations. Culling from IP across Condé Nast’s iconic publishing brands, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ and WIRED, CNE has 35 active film projects and 30 television projects in development and production with Ostroff serving as a producer or executive producer.
Her feature film credits include “Only the Brave,” released by Sony on October 20, 2017; “The Old Man and the Gun,” starring Academy Award winners Robert Redford, Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek with Fox Searchlight distributing; “Army of One” (producer); and “The First Monday in May” (producer).
Ostroff’s television producing credits include “Last Chance U” for Netflix (executive producer); “Vanity Fair Confidential” on Investigation Discovery (executive producer); “Gentlemen Lobsters” on Seeso (executive producer); as well as “The Fashion Fund” (executive producer) and “The New Yorker Presents” (executive producer), both on Amazon.
Under Ostroff’s leadership, CNE has garnered critical acclaim for its content across all platforms, including an Oscar nomination for the short documentary “Joe’s Violin”; nominations for a Critics’ Choice Award and for a prestigious Peabody Award in the Documentary category for the Netflix series “Last Chance U”; a BAFTA for Live Action Short for “Boogaloo and Graham”; an Emmy for Glamour’s “Screw Cancer”; and a Producers Guild Award for Outstanding Digital Series for WIRED’s “What’s Inside.”
Prior to joining Condé Nast, Ostroff was president of entertainment for The CW broadcast network—a joint venture of CBS and Warner Bros. that she helped launch in January 2006. Ostroff was responsible for programming, digital initiatives, branding, marketing, research and sales. As president, she developed several groundbreaking hit series, including “Gossip Girl” and “The Vampire Diaries.” In an effort to engage the digital CW generation across multiple platforms, Ostroff and her team instituted cutting-edge strategies for streaming in order to leverage content and revenue opportunities.
From 2002 to 2006, Ostroff served as president of the UPN Network, a subsidiary of CBS, where she oversaw all areas of the network’s business—programming, digital, branding, marketing, sales, finance, research, legal and publicity, and more. While at UPN, she developed the popular reality series “America’s Next Top Model,” which ran for 23 seasons, and shepherded numerous fan favorite series, including “Veronica Mars” and “Everybody Hates Chris.”
Before UPN, Ostroff served as executive vice president of entertainment at Lifetime Television, where she headed up programming and production, scheduling and acquisitions, including Lifetime Original Movies, prime-time series, specials, documentaries and sports, as well as all programming for Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women. In the five years that Ostroff led Lifetime Entertainment (1996–2002), the network rose from sixth place to become the #1-rated cable network in prime time.
Earlier in her career Ostroff held senior roles at 20th Century Fox Television, Michael Jacobs Productions (at Disney) and the Kushner-Locke Company. She began her career working at several local channels in news as an on-air reporter and a producer.
Ostroff has a BS in journalism from Florida International.