Abigail Disney

Abigail E. Disney (born January 24, 1960, in Los Angeles) is an Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker, philanthropist, and activist. She is the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, and grandniece of Walt Disney. She earned a B.A. in English literature from Yale (1982), an M.A. from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in English/philosophy from Columbia University (1994), where her dissertation examined romanticized violence in American literature (Cooper, Crane, and Pynchon).

Disney came to filmmaking after years in nonprofit work. In 2007 she co-founded the documentary company Fork Films with Gini Reticker, serving as president and CEO; the company produced *Pray the Devil Back to Hell* (2008, Tribeca Best Documentary), the PBS series *Women, War & Peace* (2011), the Emmy-winning *The Armor of Light* (2015), and *The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales* (2022). Fork Films wound down in October 2022.

In 2018 she co-founded Level Forward in partnership with Adrienne Becker (CEO) and Killer Content, positioning it as a "female-led" entertainment enterprise where "profit and principle go hand in hand." Disney provided the initial seed funding and serves as Chair and Co-Founder; the studio backs film, television, and theater projects and channels a portion of proceeds toward organizations fighting gender discrimination and harassment. She describes her mission simply: "My life is in filmmaking now, and rabble rousing, and trying to change the world through media in every way I can think of."

Beyond her investing and film work, Disney is a prominent voice on wealth inequality. She co-founded the Daphne Foundation (1991) and Peace is Loud (2008), is a member of the Patriotic Millionaires advocating higher taxes on the wealthy, delivered a widely viewed TED Talk on workers' dignity, and has publicly criticized Disney executive pay and theme-park worker conditions.

• Invests through Level Forward, an "ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return."
• Backs creators willing to trade big upfront fees for larger equity stakes and greater creative freedom, offering nontraditional financing and creative support.
• Prioritizes women and people of color and stories that "move the needle on social change" and "create dialogue across divides."
• Model explicitly redistributes a share of proceeds to nonprofits fighting gender discrimination and sexual harassment.
• Focus spans documentary and narrative film, television, and Broadway theater — projects that pair commercial viability with measurable social impact.