Dawn Bursteen

Dawn Bursteen basically runs the show at Milestone Studios, LLC. She’s not just the founder—she’s the shot-caller, handling everything from scouting projects to locking down distribution deals. This isn’t your average production house. Milestone’s got a finger in every pie: producing, financing, and distributing films all over the globe. They don’t just stick to their own ideas, either. If there’s a killer novel, a juicy article, or someone’s wild life story laying around, Milestone’s all about flipping that into a movie. Budgets? They play in the $5M to $15M sandbox, so we’re talking legit productions here—action flicks, thrillers, comedies, horror, you name it. Family movies too, for when you need something less bloody. And if filmmakers are stuck in the muck somewhere between script and screen, Milestone steps in—turnkey style—to help wrangle financing and get that all-important distribution. Dawn herself’s got a résumé that reads like a greatest hits of Hollywood and TV. She’s worn hats at Paramount, NBC, Sony Studios, and The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Marketing, publicity, promotions—she’s done it all and then some. She’s been in the trenches for about 100 films and 30-plus TV series. We’re talking heavyweights here: “Titanic,” “T2,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Ghostbusters II,” “Glory,” “Total Recall,” “Misery”—seriously, if you watched it, she probably worked on it. Over at NBC, she was the brains behind the buzz for primetime juggernauts like “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” “Frasier,” and “ER.” She’s basically Hollywood’s utility player, steering teams and working with every bigwig, agent, and creative in the biz.