Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Dawn Parouse Olmstead

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Television Producer Dawn Parouse Olmstead.

Dawn grew up in Brooklyn and got her start as a producer of Saturday Night Live and The Jon Stewart Show before moving on to executive producer the cable movie The Tiger Woods Story in 1998. Later that year she produced the documentary The Living Museum and then was in charge of production on the MTV series Undressed. In 2000, she became the Vice President of Development and Original Programming for the network where she shepherded Fear, USA’s Cannonball Run 2001 and the U.S. version of the hit U.K. show Robot Wars.

In 2003, she worked as an executive producer on the FOX (failed) pilot Still Life that starred star Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) and Morena Baccarin (Firefly and Homeland); that same year she served as the executive producer on the FOX drama Tru Calling, which ran for two season. She then served as executive producer on the short-lived FOX dram Point Pleasant before taking on the role of executive producer on Prison Break.

Over the last few TV seasons, she has worked as an executive producer on the short-lived TeenNick drama Gigantic, the acclaimed History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys and most recently the Lifetime drama The Lottery. Dawn also has two new projects coming up: the Bravo drama Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce and the upcoming ABC drama The Whispers.

In addition, she and executive producer Marti Noxon formed Grady Twins Productions (named for the twin girls in the novel and film The Shining) in 2009.

Dawn lives in Los Angeles with her husband Matt Olmstead, who is a well-known writer and producer, and their children.