Helen O'Donnell is the daughter of John F. Kennedy's top-gun political aide, Kenneth P. O'Donnell. Ms. O'Donnell is the author of A Common Good: The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy and Kenneth P. O'Donnell. She also worked with Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball on his 2012 book Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.
A writer and producer, O'Donnell has written for publications including Town & Country, Cape Cod Magazine,and the Wrap. She also narrated the BBC Radio 4 program "JFK, Bobby and Dad," which includes interviews by famed journalist Sander Vanocur of NBC and Christopher Kennedy Lawford.
She began her career working for the late senator Edward M. Kennedy before leaving for his Labor and Human Resources Committee as an assistant to Walter Sheridan, a longtime aide to Robert F. Kennedy, close friend to Kenneth O'Donnell, and head of the "get-Hoffa squad" during the John Kennedy administration. The experience served to further pique her interest in the topic of her father, the Kennedys, Marilyn Monroe, and the Rat Pack.
Recently, O'Donnell was featured in a KTLA documentary on Thirteen Days, a film about the Cuban Missile Crisis starring Kevin Costner as Kenny O'Donnell. She is currently writing a new book entitled The Washington Rat Pack about Frank Sinatra, Jack Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and the heyday of the Rat Pack. She is also developing a film by the same name, one of several forthcoming works to be co-produced by her production company, Helen O'Donnell Media, of which she is CEO. O'Donnell also serves as president of the Kenneth P. O'Donnell Political Leadership Foundation, based in Burbank, California.