Ellen Stiefler is an agent (talent, literary and theatrical), transmedia producer, executive producer[1] and Attorney[1] who manages talent and intellectual property rights across all media. She is president of Stiefler Law Group[2] and the Transmedia Agency[3], which has offices in San Diego, California, and New York City, and she has represented best-selling authors and public figures including Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor[4], Dr. Erminia (Mimi) Guarneri,[2][3] Dr. Marianne J. Legato,[4] Dr. Andy Baldwin, John Assaraf, Dina Babbitt, Sylvia Earle, the independent film company 50 Eggs,[5] and its film TEN9EIGHT,[6] which tells the story of several kids from low-income communities who discovered the power of entrepreneurship,[7] Anne McCaffrey and others.
Before embarking on her career protecting and promoting creative properties, Stiefler pursued studies in music and the violin at The Juilliard School, was graduated from The Brearley School in New York City, Duke University and The University of Miami School of Law, and also studied international and comparative law at Oxford University.
Stiefler is also a speaker on growing Transmedia businesses, law and the media, and she is an expert on publishing, transmedia and intellectual property law issues. "Ellen Stiefler is a celebrity of sorts on LinkedIn. The San Diego-based intellectual property attorney is listed as the top expert in the networking site's legal community, based on the frequency and helpfulness of the answers she provides to users' posted questions. Her feedback has touched on issues such as proving the theft of intellectual property, fighting slander and copyrighting a new software concept"[5].
Transmedia Agency has divisions in all major media, including Transmedia Books, Transmedia EBooks, Transmedia TV, Transmedia Films, and Transmedia webcasts and podcasts. Stiefler has helped pioneer new media formats, including TED Books. [8]
Among Stiefler's Transmedia projects is My Stroke of Insight, by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, which has been told as the enormously popular,[9] TED Talk[10] seen by over 25 million people, a bestselling book translated into over 30 languages, opera and stage productions, documentaries around the world, musical performances, a ballet[11][12][13] and a major, full length feature film. The film adaptation of Taylor's novel is being penned by screenwriter Semi Chellas and will be distributed by Columbia_Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, produced by Academy Award winning producer, Brian Grazer, and directed by Academy Award winning director Ron Howard, with Stiefler as Executive Producer.
Another Stiefler transmedia project is the story of Nazi holocaust survivor, artist Dina Babbitt which gave rise to United States legislation,[14] a short film, "The Last Outrage"[15] by Disney Educational Productions, a graphic novel by Neal Adams[16] and is being turned into a book and film.
Stiefler was a founding Board Member of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine [6] and Kids Korps USA [7] and continued to serve on those boards for over a decade. She also serves as an advisor and board member to other civic and charitable organizations as well as a number of for-profit companies. She founded The Gratitude Foundation in 2003 [8].
Publisher's Weekly: Viking Wins Self-Published Stroke Memoir