{{Short description|American film producer}} {{Infobox person | name = Lisa Bruce | birth_date = | birth_place = Monterey, California, U.S. | education = University of California, Santa Barbara {{small|(BA)}}<br>New York University {{small|(MFA)}} | occupation = Film producer | years_active = 1992–present }} '''Lisa Bruce''' is an American film producer known for the 2014 film ''The Theory of Everything''.
== Early life and education == Bruce was born in Monterey, California, to Mary Ann and George W. Bruce.<ref name='uts'>{{cite news |last=Rowe |first=Peter |date=February 16, 2015 |title=Stephen Hawking movie took "Everything" from Lisa Bruce |url=http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/16/hawking-everything-lisa-bruce/ |newspaper=The San Diego Union-Tribune |location=San Diego, California |access-date=March 6, 2015}}</ref> She is one of five children.<ref name='uts'/> When she was in middle school, her family moved from Monterey to Coronado, California, because of her father's job with the United States Navy as a commanding officer of the USS ''Ticonderoga'' and USS ''St. Louis''.<ref name='uts'/> As a teenager, Bruce worked at a local movie theater, where her brother paid her a dollar per hour to mop the floor; she has joked that it was her "first job in the movie business".<ref name='cej'>{{cite news |last=Selgi-Harrigan |first=Alessandra |date=January 8, 2015 |title=Lisa Bruce Produces "The Theory Of Everything" |url=http://www.coronadonewsca.com/news/coronado_island_news/lisa-bruce-produces-the-theory-of-everything/article_5a18e4a0-975d-11e4-b4ce-57b0d8807478.html |newspaper=Coronado Eagle & Journal |location=Coronado, California |access-date=March 6, 2015}}</ref>
Bruce attended Coronado High School, where she began creating short films and was elected senior class president.<ref name='uts'/> She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated in 1983 with an undergraduate degree in film, sociology, and politics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/ |title=UC Santa Barbara Film and Media Studies homepage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321092649/http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/ |archive-date=March 21, 2015 |access-date=March 6, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name='cej'/> She later attended New York University's graduate film school where she received a master's degree.<ref name='cej'/><ref>{{cite press release |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Tisch Alums Get Five Oscar Nods |url=http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2015/01/15/tisch-alums-get-five-oscar-nods-.html |location=New York City, New York |publisher=New York University |date=January 15, 2015 |access-date=March 6, 2015}}</ref>
== Career == Bruce began working as a film producer in 1992, when she and Robert Nickson—Bruce's NYU professor and mentor—founded the production company Orenda Films and produced ''Pen Pals''.<ref name='uts'/><ref name='cej'/> Orenda Films later produced ''The Search for One-eye Jimmy'' (1994), ''{{ill|Bye Bye America|de|Auf Wiedersehen Amerika}}'' (1994), and ''No Way Home'' (1996). In 1999, Bruce co-produced the independent film ''Tumbleweeds'', which won numerous awards and accolades. She went on to executive-produce ''The Emperor's Club'' (2002), ''A Lot like Love'' (2005), ''Fighting'' (2009), ''Case 39'' (2009), and ''Arthur Newman'' (2012). Working with HBO, she also produced the telefilms ''Walkout'' (2006), about the East L.A. walkouts in 1968, and ''Mary and Martha'' (2013), about two female malaria activists.
Bruce was a producer of ''The Theory of Everything'', a film about physicist Stephen Hawking's first marriage to Jane Wilde Hawking that was released in 2015. Bruce first became involved with the project in 2009 when she joined New Zealand filmmaker Anthony McCarten, who had first begun his attempts to produce the film in 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2014/12/theory-of-everything-producers-lisa-bruce-anthony-mccarten-interview-1201321030/ |title=Challenges Accepted |last=Raya |first=Anna Lisa |date=December 11, 2014 |website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=March 6, 2015}}</ref> ''The Theory of Everything'' was widely praised and received nominations for four Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and ten British Academy Film Awards.<ref name='cej'/>
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|0115537}} * [http://www.focusfeatures.com/the_theory_of_everything/castncrew?member=lisa_bruce Focus Features biography]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Lisa}} Category:Living people Category:Film producers from California Category:People from Coronado, California Category:People from Monterey, California Category:American women film producers Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Category:New York University Tisch School of the Arts alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)