Natalie Fischer

reference Natalie Fischer rolled into LSA as CEO back in February 2021, but honestly, her resume reads like a greatest-hits album for animation studios. Before landing at LSA, she was over at Illumination Entertainment—yeah, the place behind those Minions everyone’s either obsessed with or secretly annoyed by. She didn’t just pop in for a cup of coffee either; she started as Head of Business Development in 2009, then worked her way up to COO. But, get this: she was already messing around with Illumination’s business strategy even before the studio officially launched in 2007. She and Chris Meledandri (the founder—big name in animation circles) teamed up to hammer out the original business plan, which, not to be dramatic, pretty much set the stage for the studio’s ridiculously fast rise. And that’s not even the whole story. Before her Illumination days, Natalie was SVP of Business Development and Strategy over at Universal. She also did a stint as a business strategist with Channel 4 in the UK. So, she’s been in the game on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, at LSA, she’s teaming up with Locksmith’s President of Production and Co-Founder Julie Lockhart. Together, they’re supposed to steer the whole studio into its next big chapter. Basically, if you’re looking for someone who knows how to scale up a production company and wrangle all the behind-the-scenes chaos, Natalie’s got the receipts.