Ellen Pasternack

This week on 8111, Ellen Pasternack! Ellen grew up in Long Island. As a kid she was an avid reader. She was the youngest person in her town to get a library card. As a young adult she earned a degree in anthropology from SUNY Buffalo in three years time and thought seriously about going to law school. But in 1975, a good friend was traveling to California and Ellen decided join the adventure. In sunny Los Angeles, Ellen quickly landed a job working as a temp secretary at Burbank Studios (now Warner Bros.). She’s worked in the movie business ever since. 

Ellen went to work in the publicity department reading all the scripts of the films coming out at Columbia. She worked as the assistant to the head of marketing. When Ellen's boss, Elizabeth Landon, made the move from Columbia to Fox, Ellen came along and was promoted to Jr. Publicist. While at Fox she met Sid Ganis who was the publicist for Lucasfilm (which would come in handy a few years down the road). 

Ellen later moved over to Tri-Star Pictures as a Publicity Manager. But within a year she left Tri-Star to work as a Unit Publicist working directly on productions. She worked on several big projects including; Rainman, Born on the Fourth of July (where she even appears as an extra!), The Doors, Class Action, Joy Luck Club, Mrs. Doubtfire, and several others. She also moved up to the Bay Area during this time. 

In 1994, new tax incentives started to drive production out of the state. Wanting to stay in the Bay Area, Ellen landed the job at Lucas Digital as the in house head publicist. She worked closely at LDL with Miles Perkins and Nagisa Yamamoto. Ellen would work out of ILM for the next 12 years leaving just before the move to the Presidio. Working freelance she did work for the Visual Effects Society, Pixar’s Renderman, The Orphanage, Tippett Studios, Rainmaker, and Method Studios. 

Today, Ellen continues to live in Berkeley. For the past several years she’s worked on the awards campaigns for multiple studios and streamers. It was fascinating to hear about Hollywood publicity and the often complex, important work she does for the industry. Ellen is brilliant, thoughtful, kind, and great fun to chat with.