Kerstin Emhoff

Kerstin Emhoff (née Mackin; born March 18, 1967) is an American film producer and the co-founder and CEO of the commercial production company Prettybird and creative studio Ventureland. She is a member of the DGA, PGA, and Television Academy.

Under her leadership, Prettybird has won multiple Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards, Cannes Lions, and Ad Age’s Production Company of Year in 2015 and 2021. She personally won a News & Documentary Emmy Award in 2012. As the CEO of Ventureland, Emhoff has executive produced documentaries including The Deepest Breath, Bobi Wine: The People's President, If These Walls Could Sing, and AKA Jane Roe. Her former husband Douglas Emhoff later married Kamala Harris.

Career

After film school, Emhoff moved to Los Angeles, where she got a job at a small production company and "was immediately hooked into the world of short form." By 2002, Emhoff was a principal (and executive producer) at HSI Productions. HSI creatives at that time included Paul Hunter, Hype Williams, and Diane Martel.

Prettybird

In 2007, Emhoff, together with Hunter, left HSI to co-found the production company Prettybird. Emhoff is Prettybird's CEO. Prettybird has won multiple Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards, Cannes Lions, Clios, AICPs, and MTV’s Video of the Year. Ad Age named Prettybird as Creativity's Production Company of the Year twice, in 2015 and 2021.

She served as executive producer of Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden (2013), which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special; and produced Emmy Award-winning The Tillman Story.

Ventureland

In 2020, she joined with two of her Prettybird partners (Ali Brown and Paul Hunter) and long-time collaborator John Battsek to co-found Ventureland, a multi-platform entertainment company. Based in Los Angeles and London, Ventureland produces documentaries, scripted content, podcasts, and branded entertainment. As the CEO of Ventureland, Emhoff has executive produced documentaries including The Deepest Breath, Bobi Wine: The People's President, If These Walls Could Sing, and the 2020 documentary AKA Jane Roe..

Pipelines

In 2016, she founded the non-profit Pipelines, a not-for-profit initiative to increase opportunities in advertising for diverse young people. In 2024, Pipelines is scheduled to launch its mobile app, designed to connect companies looking for diverse talent with young people looking for jobs in tech and entertainment. This initiative lead to Emhoff, together with Prettybird President Ali Brown, being named as a finalist for Creativity’s Diversity & Inclusion Champions of the Year for 2021.

Emhoff served on the board of directors of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) for over ten years, and was the AICP President for Western United States. In 2015, she chaired the AICP annual show "The Art & Technique of the American Commercial." In 2020, she served as President of the Film Craft jury at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

When Ava DuVernay partnered with Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, Netflix, HBO and others to set up the Evolve Entertainment Fund (EEF), Emhoff was named to its first Advisory Board. According to Billboard, "The EEF is a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles, industry leaders in entertainment and digital media, non-profit organizations and educational institutions which is dedicated to building career pathways into film, television and music for women, people of color and low-income Angelenos through paid internships, focused mentoring and an ongoing series of workshops and panels."

Personal life

She was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has mainly Swedish ancestry. In 1992, she married Douglas Emhoff, with whom she has two children, Cole and Ella. They divorced 18 years later. She chose to retain her married name, legally and professionally. Emhoff's ex-husband later married Kamala Harris.

Kerstin Emhoff's two children have described the coparenting relationship between Emhoff and their stepmother, Kamala Harris, as "very healthy". She attended the 2021 presidential inauguration, where Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States.

Selected filmography

• The Tillman Story (2010), executive producer
• Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden (2013), executive producer
• Pretty Hurts (2013), Beyoncé music video, executive producer
• We Are the Giant (2014), executive producer
• Mojave (2015), associate producer
• XOXO (2016), executive producer
• The Monster (2016), co-producer
• We Are X (2016), executive producer
• The Final Year (2017), executive producer
• Legion of Brothers (2017), executive producer
• Ready for War (2019), producer
• AKA Jane Roe (2020), producer
• American Rapstar (2020), producer
• If These Walls Could Sing (2022), executive producer
• Theater of Thought (2022), executive producer
• FIFA Uncovered (2022), executive producer
• American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing (2023), executive producer
• The Deepest Breath (2023), executive producer
• Bobi Wine: The People's President (2023), executive producer

Awards

• News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming – Long Form (2012)

References

External links

• Kerstin Emhoff at IMDb 
• "How PRETTYBIRD President & Co-Founder Kerstin Emhoff Has Built A Powerhouse ProdCo." (August 24, 2018) Interview with Jordan Brady.