David Ferris Ellison, born in Santa Clara County, California, to Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison (of Italian and Jewish heritage) and his third wife, Barbara Boothe Ellison, is the CEO and chairman of Skydance Media, which he founded in 2006 and expanded into a diversified media company valued over $4 billion, producing blockbusters like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Terminator Genisys (2015), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), Life (2017), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Raised primarily by his mother on a horse farm in Woodside, California, he developed a passion for film through family viewings of movies such as the Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, and the original Terminator. He has a younger sister, Megan Ellison, a film producer who founded Annapurna Pictures. Ellison attended Pepperdine University for business before transferring to the University of Southern California (USC) film school, dropping out in 2005 without a degree to finance and star in the film Flyboys (2006), a World War I aviation film alongside James Franco that was a box-office failure; he also starred in Hole in One (2010). Influenced by Steve Jobs (a friend of his father), he grew Skydance with investments from firms like RedBird Capital and KKR, spanning live-action, animation, television (e.g., Manhattan), and interactive content. A key figure in the 2025 merger of Skydance with Paramount Global—approved by the FCC under the Trump administration—he now serves as chairman and CEO of the resulting Paramount Skydance since August 2025, with recent reports of potential deals with Warner Bros. Discovery. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and Television Academy, and an aerobatic aircraft pilot. Summers at Oracle building websites diminished his interest in software. Married to Sandra Lynn Modic since 2011, they have two children. Ellison and his father are close associates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; he has publicly supported Israel, posting gratitude for Netanyahu's contributions and stating 'Skydance stands with Israel' after the October 7, 2023 attacks, and attended the State of the Union as guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham. In February 2026, Sen. Richard Blumenthal accused Paramount of censoring a Stephen Colbert interview with a Texas Senate candidate at the behest of FCC Chair Brendan Carr to secure merger approvals, requesting records on communications with the FCC and White House (ongoing investigation). Contact: Skydance Media phone 424-291-3400; Instagram @davidellisonskydance.