We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10th at nywift.org/muse!
#28: Dawn Ostroff
By Katie Chambers
Dawn Ostroff is currently the Chief Content Officer of Spotify, and leads all aspects of the streaming service’s content partnerships across music, audio and video. When we honored Ostroff at the Muse Awards in 2014, she was President of Condé Nast Entertainment, and had held senior roles at 20th Century Fox Television, Michael Jacobs Productions, and the Kushner-Locke Company.
Prior to joining Condé Nast Entertainment as president, Ostroff launched and led the new CW broadcast network, developing numerous groundbreaking hit series. She has also served as president of UPN Network. Before that, she was the Executive Vice President of Entertainment at Lifetime Television, where she oversaw programming and production, leading the network to rise to the No. 1-rated cable network in primetime.
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