Linda Ellerbee is an accomplished journalist, award
winning TV producer, best selling author, and one of the most in demand
speakers in America. Her story as a breat cancer survivor is also one of
inspiration and empowerment to women everywhere.
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. Fifteen 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 four Emmys.
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 newest book, also a
best seller, Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table,
is a humorous account of 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.