Lara Breay

Lara Breay’s got a pretty wild resume, honestly. She’s a heavy-hitter over at DreamWorks Animation these days, turning out the kind of movies that get stuck in your head for weeks. But rewind a bit—she didn’t just pop up in Hollywood outta nowhere. Way back, she was elbow-deep in documentaries at the BBC, juggling directing, writing, and producing all at once. That’s classic British hustle for you. She actually grew up in England, soaked up all that Cambridge brainpower, and then decided to bounce across the pond. Now she calls Northern California home—probably sipping fancy coffee while plotting her next big move. Oh, and before DreamWorks? Lara was the VP at Red Hour Films (yep, Ben Stiller’s company), which is a pretty big deal. It’s like she’s been quietly running the show behind a bunch of stuff you’ve actually watched. Her career is this mix of creative grit and straight-up business sense—she knows how to get a story off the ground and into theaters, but she’s also got that documentary eye for the details that make things pop. You don’t see a lot of producers who’ve bounced between hard-hitting docs and big-budget animation, but Lara’s managed it. While loads of folks talk about breaking into Hollywood, she just did it—and kept climbing. Kinda wild to think she started out in rainy London and ended up helping shape what your kids are quoting at the dinner table. She’s proof that jumping genres and continents can actually work if you’re stubborn (and talented) enough to pull it off.