Producer of offbeat Hollywood hits best known for her association with director Tim Burton. Di Novi began as a print copy editor and segued to on-air reporting and film criticism for "City-TV" in Canada. She entered film in 1980 as a unit publicist on a Canadian feature, "Final Assignment". That year, she also joined Filmplan International, a Canadian production company, where she worked in various capacities. Di Novi moved to Los Angeles and received an associate producer credit on "Going Beserk" (1983), a raucous comedy starring John Candy. She next joined New World Pictures as vice president in charge of production. Di Novi received her first full producer credit on the teen black comedy "Heathers" (1989). She then joined forces with eccentric film stylist Tim Burton as head of his production company and subsequently produced "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), the successful sequel "Batman Returns" (1992) and "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), a macabre animated fantasy. In 1992 Di Novi left Burton's company to form her own Di Novi Pictures in conjunction with Columbia.

Di Novi's first picture under her new banner, "Little Women" (1994), was a critically acclaimed adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel directed by Gillian Armstrong featuring an outstanding female ensemble headed by Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon.