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Journalist, Television Producer, Author | ||||
About Linda - Bio
Linda Ellerbee is an outspoken journalist,
award-winning television producer, best-selling author,
breast cancer survivor, mother, grandmother and
one of the most sought-after speakers in America.
Ellerbee began her career at CBS, and then moved to
NBC News where, after years covering national politics, she pioneered the
late-night news program
NBC News Overnight,
which she wrote and anchored.
Overnight was
cited by the duPont Columbia Awards as "the best written and most
intelligent news program ever." In 1986, Ellerbee moved to ABC News to
anchor and write
Our World, a weekly
primetime historical series. Her work on
Our World won her
an Emmy.
In 1987, Ellerbee and Rolfe Tessem, her partner, quit
network news to start Lucky Duck Productions, first producing documentaries
for PBS. In 1991, Lucky Duck began producing
Nick News
for Nickelodeon with Ellerbee writing and hosting.
Nineteen years later,
Nick News
is watched by more children than watch all other television news shows put
together—and has earned honors traditionally associated with adult
programming.
Known for the respectful and direct way it speaks to
children about the important issues of our time,
Nick News
has collected three Peabody Awards (including one personal Peabody given to
Ellerbee for her coverage of the Clinton investigation), a duPont Columbia
Award and seven Emmys,
most recently, one for
Coming Home:
When Parents Return From War given in the
category of Outstanding Children's Programming.
Coming Home made
history when it was given the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award for best
network documentary – not a kids’ category – and the first time ever that a
kids’ show won that award.
These
days, Ellerbee and her work can be seen all over the television universe.
Lucky Duck has and continues to produce primetime specials for ABC, CBS,
HBO, PBS, Lifetime, MTV, Logo, A&E, MSNBC, SOAPnet, Trio, Animal Planet and
TV Land, among others.
Ellerbee was honored with an Emmy for her series,
When I
Was a Girl, which aired on WE: Women’s
Entertainment network.
Ellerbee’s first foray into books for kids, an
eight-part fiction series entitled
Get Real,
published in 2000, won her raves among middle school readers. Both of
Ellerbee’s previous adult books—And
So It Goes, a humorous look at television
news, and
Move On, stories
about being a working single mother, a child of the ‘60s and a woman trying
to find some balance in her life—have been national best sellers.
Ellerbee’s recent book, also a best seller,
Take Big Bites:
Adventures Around the World and Across the Table,
a tribute to her love of travel, talking to (and eating with) strangers,
and, according to Ellerbee, “oh, just making trouble in general.”
As a breast cancer survivor, Ellerbee travels
thousands of miles each year giving inspirational speeches to others. She is
as direct with women as she is with kids;
they understand
that she
understands
their lives.
Although Ellerbee
has won all of television's highest honors, she says it’s her two children
who’ve brought her the richest rewards. Ellerbee spends her personal time in
New York City and Massachusetts with Rolfe, her partner in work and life and
their dogs, Daisy and Dolly.
ELLERBEE SPEECH TOPICS
All speeches run approximately 45 minutes.
Ellerbee can follow up with 15 minutes of Q&A.
Also, Ellerbee can do combinations of some of the speeches below.
How To Be
Successful and Hang Onto Your Values:
How Ellerbee balanced having kids and building a career...or tried
to. Ellerbee delivers her
trademark wit and wisdom on everything from leaving the networks to starting
her own company, from having a boss to being the boss.
How to Survive a
Changing World and How to Change Your World:
Ellerbee gives her rules for surviving a changing world with the
heart intact – from surviving breast cancer, to climbing mountains, from
overcoming obstacles to making a noise.
In her life and in her career, Ellerbee has learned that
change is the norm.
How to Raise
Media-Savvy Kids:
In
the future, our kids will either learn to use the media that surround them
as tools, or they will be tools of that media. Television. The Internet.
iPhones. What's next? And what is media literacy today, and how do we teach
it? Ellerbee offers insight and perspective gained from speaking with (and
listening to) kids for nearly 20 years on the critically-acclaimed
children's television series, "Nick News".…and from raising two media-savvy
kids of her own.
Kids,
Television, and the News:
Ellerbee talks about her journey to producing children’s television –
how she created Nick News, her
long-running series on Nickelodeon and “what I’ve learned about children,
television and the real world.”
PLEASE NOTE: THIS SPEECH MAY BE
TAILORED FOR EDUCATION GROUPS.
Ellerbee talks about how teachers can use television as a teaching tool and
turn television from the enemy into the teacher’s friend.
Surviving Breast
Cancer to Laugh Another Day:
Ellerbee describes her experience with breast cancer – from the
heartfelt yet amusing reactions of friends and colleagues, to the
determination and spirit that make her an 18+-year survivor.
And So It Goes: Adventures in
the Television World - copyright 1986;
about Ellerbee’s career.
Move On: Adventures in the
Real World - copyright 1991; about Ellerbee’s life.
Get Real - released in 2000-2001; an 8-part
fictional series for middle-school readers.
Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and
Across the Table -
copyright
2005; about travel and food.
EVENT INFORMATION FORM