[6] After graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1973,[5] Ziskin began by writing material for game shows and then became the personal assistant of Jon Peters.

[8] Ziskin and partner Ian Sander produced two films featuring Dennis Quaid, the 1988 remake of D.O.A.,[9] and Taylor Hackford's Everybody's All-American (also 1988).

[14] A switch to Columbia resulted in Stephen Frears' Hero (1992), a loose remake of Meet John Doe (1941), for which Ziskin both produced and supplied the story.

Ziskin and Tom Rothman helped develop the script for The English Patient (1996) before studio head Bill Mechanic returned the rights to director Anthony Minghella, who then got it produced and distributed through Miramax.

Its stars, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, received the leading role Oscars in the acting categories.

[19] After nearly five years in the same job, Ziskin resigned from Fox 2000 in November 1999 and within a month had a production deal at Columbia Pictures.

After serving as the first solo female producer of an Academy Awards telecast in 2002, Ziskin returned to the big screen with the feature version of Spider-Man (2002).

When she was about 27, Ziskin married writer Julian Barry, relocating to Connecticut to help him raise his three children from a previous marriage.