Linda Ellerbee is a woman of spirit and determination who has enlightened and entertained us
for over 40 years. She is an outspoken journalist, award-winning television producer, best-
selling author, a breast cancer survivor, a mom, and a grandmother. She speaks about
surviving in a changing world. Audiences come to hear her trademark wit and wisdom on
everything from family life, friendship, getting fired, building a career, starting a company,
discovering love, politics, feminism, surviving breast cancer, recovering from alcoholism,
overcoming obstacles, climbing mountains, and making a noise. Linda Ellerbee puts audiences
at ease, while inspiring them with her gifts of honesty, courage, hope and laughter.
Courage and Inspiration
Linda's Profile
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.
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 another 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. The show has won three Peabody
awards and five Emmys, and is the longest running and most watched children's television
news program ever.
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.
Ellerbee has written three bestsellers for adults — And So It Goes, a humorous account of
her years in network television, Move On, a more intimate look at her life, and Take Big Bites:
Adventures Around the World and Across the Table, a tribute to her love of travel, talking to
(and eating with) strangers, and, according to Ellerbee, “oh, just making trouble in general.”
Linda 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.
Topic Categories
Cancer Survivors
Media
Motivation, Inspiration
Presentation Titles
How To Be Successful and Hang Onto Your Values -- About Linda Ellerbee’s life as
journalist, mom, grandmother, tv producer, CEO of her own production company, and balancing
it all.
Kids, Television and The News -- Change television from the enemy to the
teacher’s aid. ALSO, how Linda produces the longest-running & most watched news show for
kids.
Surviving Breast Cancer To Laugh Another Day -- Linda’s diagnosis, surgery,
recovery – all in the public eye. The role of the doctors and nurses in her recovery.
How To Survive A Changing World and How To Change Your World -- About Linda
Ellerbee’s career and life and the obstacles she overcame along the way.
How To Raise Media-Savvy Kids -- In the future, our kids will either learn to use
the media that surround them as tools, or they will be tools of that media. Television. The
Internet? iPhones? What's next. And what is media literacy today, and how do we teach it?
Ellerbee offers insight and perspective gained from speaking with (and listening to) kids for
nearly 20 years on the critically-acclaimed children's television series, "Nick News".…and from
raising two media-savvy kids of her own.
About turning television from the enemy to the teacher’s
aid. ALSO, how Linda produces the longest-running & most watched news show for kids.
About Linda’s diagnosis, surgery, recovery – all in the public eye. The role of the doctors and
nurses in her recovery.
Audience Testimonials
“With her raspy voice and frank, no-nonsense demeanor, Ellerbee describes her experience
with both humor and pathos. Her story can anger, inspire, move and amuse, all at the same
time...” -- The Connecticut Post
