A California native, Dana Walden was born in Los Angeles in 1964. She was raised by a mother who was a dancer, and a father who worked in the travel industry. Walden spent much of her time as a teen escaping the city for the stables, where she rode show hunters competitively. Once it was time to head off to university, she stuck around LA and attended the University of Southern California (USC).

Walden spent 25 years at 21st Century Fox. During her tenure, the studios racked up an impressive collection of awards, including 184 Emmys, 29 Golden Globes, 17 Screen Actors Guild Awards, and 24 Peabody Awards. Walden brought several series to Fox that became almost instant hits. She is responsible for greenlighting shows like This is Us, Empire, Homeland, Modern Family, Arrested Development, and The Practice.

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Walden worked her way to the top, becoming Chairman and CEO of Fox and its affiliates. She headed Fox Broadcasting Company for four years, and in that time was able to take it from a fourth-place ranking to first place. Now, Walden is Chairman of Entertainment of Disney Television Studios and ABC entertainment, since Disney’s $73.1 billion buyout of Fox.

While in charge of Disney studios, Walden has focused a lot of her attention on online streaming. She’s worked to build up the catalogs of both Disney+ and Disney-owned Hulu. One of her current goals is to work with smaller production companies to bring them to the bigger platforms. “Artists will want to be with a smaller company to curate their ideas and figure out exactly what’s right,” Walden says.” That will lead to all sorts of other opportunities…the next ten years is going to bring significantly more artists, storytellers, and great consumer products to viewers.”

For someone who’s made it to the top, Walden is still in the prime of her career. She recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award from Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. She has also received the National Association of Television Program Executive's Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award and was named MIPCOM's Personality of the Year. Currently, she is working on opening a space for more creators of color on Hulu, with her newly created content brand, Onyx Collective.