| Lisa Donovan | |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1980 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Other Names: | LisaNova (on YouTube) |
| Occupation: | Entrepreneur, actress, YouTuber |
| Years Active: | 2006–present |
| Known For: | The Pattern, Maker Studios |
Lisa Donovan (born June 11, 1980) is an American former YouTuber. She is a founder of Zappin Productions,[1] a production company that specialized in viral videos, as well as the founder and CEO of The Pattern, an astrology-based personality app.
Donovan began her career as one of YouTube's earliest content creators and was subsequently one of the co-founders of Maker Studios, a YouTube video network which was purchased in 2015 by The Walt Disney Company for $675M.[2] The network was absorbed by Disney in 2017 to become Disney Digital Network. The network provided production and marketing services for over 1,000 YouTube channels.[3]
Donovan grew up in Scarsdale, New York.[4] She was a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder before moving to Los Angeles, California.[5]
Donovan made her first YouTube channel in September 2005[6] and uploaded her first video, "Introducing LisaNova," a reel of facial clips in black-and-white accompanied by the Charles Aznavour song Non, je n'ai rien oublié, to YouTube on June 7, 2006.[7] She has parodied a number of celebrities and public figures; her impersonation of Sarah Palin was praised in Wired as "ruthlessly hilarious", and in 2008 Ralph Nader made a guest appearance in one of the skits.[8] In a Forbes magazine article, YouTube founder Chad Hurley highlighted Donovan's success as an example of the changing paradigm of entertainment.[9] Donovan is also a co-creator of the popular YouTube channel 'The Game Station', which led to her co-founding the YouTube network Maker Studios.
Donovan was one of the first YouTube content creators to cross over to mainstream Hollywood when she was cast on MADtv in 2006.[10] She debuted in a spoof of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she played Salma Hayek, the producer of the ABC comedy Ugly Betty, and Rosie O'Donnell.[11] The episode aired on February 17, 2007. After signing a contract and only appearing in four episodes of MADtv, she left the following season.
In 2010, she was given a role in Cosmopolitans Fun & Fearless campaign for females.[12]
In 2011, she was honored as Pioneer in New Media at the third annual Burbank International Film Festival[13] alongside fellow honorees Bill Plympton, Mark Kirkland, Fred Willard, Al Jean, and Roger Corman.
In 2015, she played the role of the flight attendant in Jeremy Garelick's The Wedding Ringer.[14]
Donovan co-founded and served as a board member for Maker Studios, a next-generation talent-focused technology & media company. Maker Studios was sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2014.[15]
Donovan is the founder and CEO of The Pattern, an astrology-based personality app.[16] Before it officially launched it had 30,000 users by word of mouth.[17] By 2021, the app had over 15 million profiles. The Pattern is initially free, but with paid features. The app uses the time, date and place of birth to make a "pattern", which is like a user's manual to their life that The Sunday Times described as "Myers-Briggs meets Brené Brown".
Donovan stated that her life experiences around the time of the Maker Studios acquisition by Disney inspired her to build The Pattern, which she initially self-funded with a portion of her earnings from the sale. In 2021, Donovan announced that The Pattern intends to launch a dating product called Connect.[18]