Jane Fonda to Host 2016 Women's Media Awards; Gayle King to Make Opening Remarks

The Women's Media Center is proud to announce that our 2016 Women's Media Awards will this year be hosted for the first time by Jane Fonda, the two-time Academy Award-winning star of Netflix's "Grace and Frankie." Gayle King, co-anchor of "CBS This Morning" and three-time Emmy winner, will give the opening remarks at the event.

The announcement was made by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan,and Gloria Steinem, co-founders of the Women's Media Center. The celebration will be held on September 29, 2016, at Capitale in New York City.

The Women's Media Awards recognize and honor game-changers for women in media. By deciding who gets to talk, what creates the debate, who writes, and what is important enough to be visible, the media shapes our understanding of who we are and what we can be. The Women's Media Awards shine a light on this important issue.

"I am so delighted that Jane Fonda, my friend and sister co-founder of the Women's Media Center, is hosting our gala," says WMC Co-Founder Robin Morgan. "Jane is a brilliant artist who continues to illumine new, challenging roles with her deep understanding of humanity. She's also a longtime activist, contributing to and speaking out for progressive causes, especially women's rights and empowerment. Gloria and I truly could not have founded the Women's Media Center without her energy, vision, support, humor, star power, and plain hard work."

"I am very honored to host this year's Women's Media Awards," says Women's Media Center Co-Founder Jane Fonda. "I am so proud of how, in the eleven years since the Women's Media Center was founded, this organization has served as a powerful advocate for gender equality in the media. When only a tiny percentage of the top-level positions in media are held by women, it is crucial that we draw attention to the amazing work being done by women in all areas of media, that we provide a home base for training women to take the next big step, and that we highlight the huge need for further progress."

"It is my great pleasure that this year the mighty Gayle King will be providing the opening remarks for our Women's Media Awards," says Women's Media Center Co-Founder Gloria Steinem. "In her rich journalistic career and while anchoring one of America's key national news shows, Gayle has been a leader and an exponent of the best in integrity, intelligence, and empathy. A past co-chair of the Women's Media Awards, she is one of our greatest examples of a woman shining bright at the height of the media world."

Jane Fonda was born in New York City in 1937, the daughter of Henry Fonda and Frances Seymour Fonda. She attended the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and Vassar College. In her early twenties, Fonda studied with renowned acting coach Lee Strasberg and became a member of the Actors Studio in New York. Fonda is a two-time Academy Award® winner (Best Actress in 1971 for "Klute" and in 1978 for "Coming Home"), a three-time Golden Globe® winner, and was the 2014 recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award. Along with starring roles in dozens of highly acclaimed productions, Fonda also took on responsibilities as a film and television producer. Her credits include "Coming Home," "The China Syndrome," "Nine to Five," "Rollover," "On Golden Pond," "The Morning After," and "The Dollmaker."

In 2007 Fonda received an Honorary Palme d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival, one of only three people ever to be granted the honor until then. In 2009, she received a Tony Award nomination for her role in Moisés Kaufman's "33 Variations" on Broadway. In 2011, Fonda appeared in "Et Si On Vivait Tous Ensemble," a French comedy, followed by "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding," co-starring Catherine Keener. She appeared as Nancy Reagan in "Lee Daniels's The Butler" in 2013, and with Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell in "Better Living Through Chemistry." In 2014, she starred in director Shawn Levy's "This is Where I Leave You," with Tina Fey and Jason Bateman. For three seasons, Fonda appeared as media mogul Leona Lansing in an Emmy®-nominated performance in Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" on HBO. Most recently, she appeared in "Youth," written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (director and co-writer of Italy's Academy Award® winning Best Foreign Language Film "The Great Beauty"). She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Fonda also stars in Netflix's hit series, "Grace and Frankie" which premiered its second season in May 2016.

Fonda revolutionized the fitness industry with the release of "Jane Fonda's Workout" in 1982. She followed with the production of 23 home exercise videos, 13 audio recordings, and seven bestselling books-selling 17 million copies altogether. The original "Jane Fonda's Workout" video remains the top grossing home video of all time.??

Gayle King has been a co-host of "CBS This Morning" since 2011. She is also editor-at-large of the award-winning O, the Oprah Magazine. King previously hosted "The Gayle King Show," a live, weekday television interview program on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. The program, which featured a discussion of a broad variety of topics that include politics and cultural developments, was also broadcast on XM Satellite Radio, where it premiered in 2006. Before moving into print and radio, King worked for 18 years (1982-2000) as a television news anchor for CBS affiliate WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, during which period she also hosted her own Syndicated daytime program. Prior to joining WFSB, King worked at several other television stations, including WDAF-TV in Kansas City (1978-1981), WJZ-TV in Baltimore (1976), and WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C. (1975).

King has received numerous awards for her extensive work as a journalist. In addition to three Emmys®, she was honored in 2008 with the American Women in Radio & Television Gracie Award for Outstanding Radio Talk Show and in 2010 with both the Individual Achievement Award for Host-Entertainment/Information and the New York Women in Communications' Matrix Award recipient.

King spent several years of her childhood in Ankara, Turkey, before returning with her family to the United States. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 1976 with a degree in psychology. The mother of a daughter, Kirby, and a son, Will, she currently resides in New York City.

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