Laurie Jacobson

Laurie Jacobson (born April 22 1953) is an American author of books and articles about entertainment profiles and phenomena. After years with Harvey Lembeck's comedy workshop, where she was inspired by classmates such as Robin Williams, John Larroquette and John Ritter, she gained notoriety as a writer and producer accounting for her own Hollywood research on television.

Born in St. Louis, Jacobson moved to Los Angeles and started working in comedy groups and as a stand-up on her own. She was intrigued by stories on previous performers and began collecting facts and doing interviews about them. In addition to writing, she has also produced documentaries and television specials, among them Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show, Warner Bros Studio Rededication Party (1990), The Suzanne Summers Show (1994) and The Museum of Television and Radio's Salute to Funny Women on Television. Respected as an authority on Hollywood history, she has appeared on radio and television, including E!’s Mysteries and Scandals, CNN, 20th Century with Mike Wallace, Art Bell's Dark Matter, Entertainment Tonight, A&E, History Channel, Discovery Channel and AMC. In 2008 she co-starred with Shirley Knight in the independent film Not Fade Away. Jacobson resides in Santa Rosa, California where she has taught at American Eagle Studios and Santa Rosa Junior College.

She accounted for her own personal supernatural experiences in a Hollywood Halloween podcast in 2013. Details of Jacobson's background have been covered extensively in online interviews and news reports. Her husband is actor Jon Provost whom she met in 1996.

In 2017, the Southern California Motion Picture Council in Van Nuys gave Jacobson its Lifetime Achievement Award in appreciation of her entertainment-industry contributions.

In recent years, Jacobson has become a profile in TV-associated culinary history and she and her husband have also been involved in animal activism. Through Provost Pets they launched a line of pet products in 2025.