Laurie Ellen David (née Lennard; born March 22, 1958) is an American environmental activist, producer, and writer. She produced the Academy Award–winning '' An Inconvenient Truth'' (2006) and partnered with Katie Couric to executive produce '' Fed Up'' (2014), a film about the causes of obesity in the United States. She serves as a trustee on the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States–based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicag ...

and a member of the Advisory Board of the Children's Nature Institute and is a contributing

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ger to '' The Huffington Post.''

Personal life

Laurie Ellen Lennard was born and raised in a

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. She was married to

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He is known for his dry wit, portrayals of awkward social situations, and brutally honest takes on everyday life. He has received two Prim ...

from March 31, 1993, to July 13, 2007. They have two daughters. In 2007, David retained nearly half of their net worth following their divorce. She married Robert Thorpe in 2012.

Entertainment industry

Before working full-time on environmental and political issues, David worked in the entertainment industry. She began her career in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

as a talent coordinator for '' Late Night with David Letterman''. Four years later, she left to start her own management company, representing comedians and comedy writers. David also produced several comedy specials for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, Showtime, MTV, and Fox Television. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she became vice president of comedy development for a division of Fox Broadcasting and developed sitcoms for

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...

. After leaving to raise her daughters, she was one of the producers of ''An Inconvenient Truth'', which won an Academy Award.

Activism

Climate change

Laurie David has worked publicly on projects aimed at stopping

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. She founded the ''Stop Global Warming Virtual March'' with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Senator

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

. David has produced other projects to bring the issue of climate change into the mainstream

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

, including the release of her first book, ''Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You!'', and the comedy special ''Earth to America!'', which aired on TBS on November 20, 2005. Aside from the Academy Award-winning documentary '' An Inconvenient Truth'', David produced

's ''Too Hot Not to Handle'' (a documentary on the

effects of climate change Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an Instrumental temperature record, overall warming trend, Effects of climate change on the ...

in the U.S.), which aired on April 22, 2006. She appeared in '' Big Ideas for a Small Planet'', an environmentalist documentary series on the Sundance Channel. In a 2006 interview with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', David admitted that owning two homes on opposite sides of the country and flying in a private jet several times per year is at odds with her message: "Yes, I take a private plane on holiday a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it. I probably shouldn't do it. But the truth is, I'm not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don't expect anybody else to be perfect either. That's what hurts the environmental movement – holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away."

Campaigns

As a trustee of the

and a founding member of The Detroit Project, David has spearheaded numerous public education and action campaigns urging Congress and automakers to raise

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

standards and make higher mileage cars. In January 2004, the NRDC opened the David Family Environmental Action Center.

Awards

In 2003, David was honored by the Riverkeeper organization. She also received the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based Children's Nature Institute's Leaf Award in 2003 for her commitment to the environmental education of young children. In October 2006, '' Glamour'' featured David as one of its "Women of the Year". She received the Gracie Allen Award for Individual Achievement from American Women in Radio & Television and the NRDC's 2006 Forces for Nature award for her work against global warming. David has received numerous other awards and honors, including the Producers Guild of America's Stanley Kramer Award and a Humanitas Prize Special Award. Her environmental work has been honored with the National Audubon Society's Rachel Carson Award in 2007, the Feminist Majority's Eleanor Roosevelt Award, and Bette Midler's Green Goddess Award in 2019.

Books

David has written two cookbooks on healthy eating and the importance of family dinner. ''The Family Dinner'' was published in 2010, with recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt, a foreword by Harvey Karp, and an afterword by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book advocates a return to the domestic tradition of an evening meal (sometimes called supper) shared around the family table. ''The Family Cooks'' was published a few years later. She co-wrote a book on climate for kids, ''The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming''. In 2021, she co-wrote ''Imagine It! A Handbook for a Happier Planet'', published by Random House/Rodale.

Bibliography

References

External links

Laurie David
Official website *
Huffington Post columnLaurie David talks with Chicago Life about her work with ''The Inconvenient Truth.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:David, Laurie 1958 births Living people 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Activists from California Activists from New York (state) American women bloggers American bloggers American women columnists American women environmentalists American women non-fiction writers American women television producers American women television writers American non-fiction environmental writers American talent agents American television writers Businesspeople from Los Angeles People from Long Island Environmental bloggers HuffPost writers and columnists Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American screenwriters Jewish American television writers Jewish bloggers Jewish women writers Ohio University alumni Screenwriters from Los Angeles Screenwriters from New York City Television producers from California Television producers from New York City