David Ellison

Early life and education

Ellison was born on January 9, 1983, in Santa Clara County, California. He is the son of billionaire Oracle Corporation co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison and his ex-wife, Barbara Boothe Ellison. His father is of Italian and Jewish heritage. Ellison grew up in Woodside, California, with his mother, who nurtured his love for film. He attended Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California, but dropped out of its film school in 2005 to fund a movie with his family's money, Flyboys, a box-office bomb. Ellison was influenced by businessman Steve Jobs, a friend of his father, and pitched Jobs his idea for Skydance Media before revising it under Jobs' advice. He has one sister, film producer Megan Ellison, who founded Annapurna Pictures.

Larry Ellison was not a day-to-day presence in David Ellison's early life.

Career

Ellison's career started in acting. His father Larry heavily financed his first major film as an actor, “Flyboys”. It was widely considered a failure. Ellison also acted in Little Fish, Strange Pond, and Hole in One before giving up his acting ambitions and going into the business side of the entertainment industry.

Larry provided substantial investment into David's media company Skydance Media. The company's films include Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Annihilation, World War Z, True Grit, Jack Reacher, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. Ellison was named to Varietys Dealmaker list for 2010 and the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2011. Ellison was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Top Gun: Maverick. Ellison's company Skydance Media expanded in 2013 with the launch of its television division. He has executive-produced shows such as Altered Carbon and Grace and Frankie. In 2014, Ellison launched a new line of men's clothing called the "LANAI Collection." In 2017, Ellison helped launch Skydance Animation in partnership with Spain's Ilion Animation Studios. In 2019, Ellison hired the former Pixar CCO John Lasseter to run Skydance Animation.

Paramount Skydance Corporation

In January 2024, it was reported that Ellison was interested in merging Skydance Media with Paramount Global and buying the latter's parent company National Amusements from Shari Redstone. The merger received approval from the FCC under the second Donald Trump administration in July of 2025. The merger was completed by August 7, 2025, and Paramount Skydance Corporation was formed. Ellison serves as Chairman and CEO of the merged company. Following the merger, Ellison made conservative-friendly changes at CBS News, hand-picking Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief. Shortly in her tenure, Weiss controversially held a 60 Minutes story on the Trump administration's deportations to Venezuela from being aired on CBS.

Ellison sought to hinder a merger of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Wall Street Journal reported in December 2025 that Ellison had given assurances to President Donald Trump that if Paramount were allowed to buy Warner, he would make sweeping changes to CNN, the news channel that Trump has frequently criticized. Ellison worked with three sovereign wealth funds owned by Middle-Eastern governnents, as well as Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, to finance a competing bid for Warner. Defying historical precedent of non-involvement in mergers, Donald Trump personally involved himself in the merger evaluation.

Ellison has been described as an ally of Donald Trump. Trump has boasted about his friendship with David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison.

Personal life

He married Sandra Lynn Modic, an actress and singer, on October 1, 2011, in Palm Springs, California. They have two children.

Ellison is a licensed pilot with instrument ratings for helicopter aviation, aerobatics, commercial aviation, fixed-wing aircraft, and multi-engine aircraft. In 2003, aged 20, he was selected to perform as part of Sean D. Tucker's "Stars of Tomorrow" aerobatic team at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

Ellison and his father are close associates of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ellison is a member of the Producers Guild of America and Television Academy.

Filmography

Film

Executive producer

• Flyboys (2006)
• True Grit (2010)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• The Guilt Trip (2012)
• Jack Reacher (2012)
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• World War Z (2013)
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
• Baywatch (2017)
• Annihilation (2018)
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
• Without Remorse (2021)
• Snake Eyes (2021)
• Blush (2021)
• Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

• Terminator Genisys (2015)
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
• Life (2017)
• Geostorm (2017)
• Gemini Man (2019)
• Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
• 6 Underground (2019)
• The Old Guard (2020)
• The Tomorrow War (2021)
• The Adam Project (2022)
• Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
• Luck (2022)
• The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
• Air (2023)
• Ghosted (2023)
• Kelce (2023)
• Heart of Stone (2023)
• Spy Kids: Armageddon (2023)
• Spellbound (2024)
• The Gorge (2025)
• The Old Guard 2 (2025)
• Fountain of Youth (2025)
• The Family Plan 2 (2025)
• They Will Kill You (2026)
• Swapped (2026)
• Mayday (2026)
• Matchbox: The Movie (2026)
• Way of the Warrior Kid (2026)
• Ray Gunn (2026)
• Untitled Jack and the Beanstalk project (TBA)
• Untitled Skydance Animation/Don Hall project (TBA)

Television

References

• April 22, 2024, David Ellison's journey from trust fund kid to media mogul vying to buy Paramount, Los Angeles Times, 21 March 2025
• 2025, A Father, a Son and Their $108 Billion Push for Media Moguldom, New York Times
• Larry Ellison's Son Launches A Clothing Line Inspired By His Dad's Hawaiian Island, Business Insider, December 4, 2014, Julie, Bort, December 7, 2014
• David Ellison's Skydance Launching Animation Division With Spain's Ilion, McNary, Dave, March 16, 2017, Variety, en, May 3, 2019, August 29, 2022, live
• 2024-01-24, David Ellison Makes Offer for Redstone Family's Media Empire, 2024-01-26, Bloomberg.com, en, January 25, 2024, live
• 2025-12-22, Ellison offers personal guarantee for son's Warner Bros bid, Le Monde, en
• Andrews, Joe Flint, Brian Schwartz and Natalie, 2025-12-09, Behind Paramount’s Relentless Campaign to Woo Warner Discovery and President Trump, The Wall Street Journal, en-US
• Spangler, Todd, 2025-12-16, Trump Blasts the Ellisons Amid Their Warner Bros. Bid: ‘If They Are Friends, I’d Hate to See My Enemies!’, Variety, en-US
• June 10, 2011, Tom Cruise Wedding Dance Battle...Caught On Tape, live, May 30, 2022, TMZ, Tom and Katie were in Palm Springs this weekend celebrating the wedding of Sandy Modic and David Ellison.
• Farah, Lynn, March 21, 2024, Meet Larry Ellison's Hollywood children, David and Megan: the heirs to the Oracle co-founder's billion-dollar fortune are nepo babies in film, but remain largely behind-the-scenes, live, October 18, 2024, South China Morning Post
• Execs Archive, Skydance Media, en-US, May 3, 2019, May 27, 2022, live
• Michael, Schneider, February 27, 2025, Bill Nighy Joins Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham in Amazon Prime Video Action Series 'Ride or Die' (EXCLUSIVE), December 24, 2025, Variety

External links

• David Ellison Work Summary