Who

As New York's film commissioner, it's Oliver's job to lure big-budget films and television shows to the city. Her office is also responsible for handing out shooting permits, which means you can blame her for the movie crew that roped off your street last week and the angry production assistant who barked at you for walking on to the set.

Backstory

Oliver grew up in Brooklyn and studied journalism at NYU before taking on-air positions at Newark's WBGO and CNBC radio. In 1992, she joined Bloomberg LP as the host and executive producer of a syndicated business program. She moved up the ranks as the financial media company expanded over the course of the 1990s, and was eventually promoted to general manager of Bloomberg Radio and Television; she later moved to London to spearhead the company's plans to launch television outlets in Europe and Asia. Shortly after Bloomberg was elected mayor, Oliver left the company to join him at City Hall, taking the position of film commissioner in August of 2002.

Of note

It's Oliver's responsibility to convince film and television producers to shoot in New York as opposed to trying to pass off Vancouver as downtown Manhattan or replicate the city on a Hollywood soundstage. The stakes are high: The industry pumps an estimated $5 billion into the city's economy every year and provides some 100,000 New Yorkers with jobs. Like most municipalities, the city provides various tax incentives as well as a range of other benefits (like free police security) to productions that film here, but Oliver has sweetened the deal in recent years. New York now offers location scouting services gratis and has initiated a program that dispenses free advertising on city-owned billboards and bus shelters to movies and TV shows that bear the "Made in NYC" seal of approval. Oliver has also tried to eliminate the hurdles that previously made obtaining a shooting permit a cumbersome process.

Her efforts seem to be paying off. The city's film office now hands out more than 200 shooting permits a week—double the number from when she first took over—and she was instrumental in convincing Law & Order creator Dick Wolf to keep the series located in New York after rumors surfaced that he planned to go elsewhere to save money. A little persuasion goes a long way: Oliver personally lobbied to the powers that be to ensure that Sidney Pollack could shoot The Interpreter at the U.N., the first time a movie has been permitted to film inside the General Assembly hall.

Personal

In 2004 the unmarried Oliver paid $1.15 million for an apartment in the Museum Tower on West 53rd Street. Her neighbors in the building include Sirio Maccioni, Carl Icahn and Glenn Lowry.