Lauren Diane Shuler Donner (born June 23, 1949) is an American film producer, who specializes in mainstream youth and family-oriented entertainment. She owns The Donners' Company with her husband, director Richard Donner. Her films have grossed about $4.5 billion worldwide, mostly due to the X-Men film series.
Donner was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a Jewish family. She is the daughter of a wholesale distributor and a housewife. She was raised in Cleveland, where she took on photography and frequently went to the movies with a cousin. She studied film at Boston University, specializing in production and editing. Following the advice of a teacher, she moved to Los Angeles in hopes of entering the entertainment industry.
As Donner worked in Los Angeles as an assistant editor of educational and medical films, she sought other jobs and despite having no original intention to work in television, a chance meeting at NBC headquarters led her to leave her data there. In 1973, the network invited Shuler to a vacation relief program filling in for employees on vacation. She worked on many jobs, but decided that the best for her would be as a camera operator due to her photography experience. After being taught about cameras by the crew of The Tonight Show, Shuler asked NBC to work on the local news. Afterwards she freelanced on Metromedia, working on rock concert shoots, sitcoms and TV movies. Donner was a rare camerawoman in a male-dominated field, being the first woman admitted to the IATSE Electrical and Camera Guild #659.