Throughout the past year or so, the film industry has seen several gains in terms of inclusivity. Sixteen black directors worked on top-grossing movies in 2018, a 12-year high. Last year also marked major improvements for the on-screen representation of women, people of color, and women of color in top films. However, per an evaluation from Variety, this uptick in inclusion has not carried over to Hollywood’s leadership: top film studios and talent agencies’ highest ranks are still dominated by white men.
Variety studied the gender and racial breakdown of each major studio and agency, and concluded that “the levers of decision-making within the country’s most powerful media organizations continue to be largely controlled by white males — particularly in the film industry.” Universal’s Donna Langley is the only female chairman of a major studio, and none of the top studios are headed by a person of color.
In terms of women in leadership roles, Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Universal fare best among the studios.
Disney is the only major studio with a woman head of distribution, Cathleen Taff, who was named president of global theatrical distribution in 2018. Kathleen Kennedy is president of Lucasfilm and “Frozen” director Jennifer Lee was appointed head of Disney Animation last summer. Fox TV Group chairman Dana Walden, 20th Century Fox Film vice chairman Emma Watts, and Fox Searchlight co-head Nancy Utley are also among the studio’s higher-ups, thanks to the recent Disney-Fox merger.
“From the vice president level up, executive leadership is 42% female” at Sony, “an 8% improvement in the last decade,” Variety found. “In the past year alone, 50% of hires VP or higher were female.” Among them is senior VP of intersectional marketing Ellene Miles, who is also a woman of color. She has helped the studio tell stories about and for underrepresented communities, such as the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
Along with Langley, Universal’s female leadership includes DreamWorks Animation prez Margie Cohn, Focus Features distribution head Lisa Bunnell, and senior VP of Global Talent Development and Inclusion Janine Jones-Clark.
The gender gap is especially wide at Paramount and Warner Bros. Paramount has fielded accusations of gender bias from former execs Megan Colligan and Amy Powell. Currently, Nicole Clemens has the studio’s top TV position, Mireille Soria leads Paramount Animation, and group exec VP Marva Smalls sits on the Global Inclusion Advisory Committee. The latter is also a woman of color. Warner Bros.’ post-Kevin Tsujihara interim leadership boasts only one woman: chief financial officer Kim Williams.
None of the studios disclosed full inclusion-in-leadership numbers, which does not bode well, to say the least.
“Roughly 26% of the [Sony exec leadership] team identifies as ethnically diverse, insiders familiar with the studio said,” per Variety. Thirty percent of its recent hires have been people of color. At Disney, diversity among senior leadership “remains elusive outside of studio marketing chief Asad Ayaz.” Along with Jones-Clark, Universal’s leaders of color include Abhijay Prakash, president of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. Walter Hamada heads Warner Bros.’ DC Films unit.
Talent agencies CAA, UTA, and WME also declined to share diversity numbers. Among CAA’s execs is Christy Haubegger, who is of Mexican-American descent and the founder of Latina magazine. Earlier this year UTA brought on Darnell Strom to lead its new Culture and Leadership division.
WME’s execs of color include WME Power leads Theresa Kang-Lowe and Phil Sun, Endeavor chief marketing officer Bozoma Saint John, and Endeavor chief human resources officer Kerry D. Chandler. Variety notes that WME has been “satisfied” with its diversity numbers and recruitment, but “retention was an issue, due to how often rising agents tend to shuffle jobs.”
ICM was the only agency in Variety’s report that fully disclosed inclusion stats. Fifty percent of its employees are women and 25 percent are people of color. Women represent 45 percent of agents and make up 33 percent of the board of directors.
CAA’s leaders include chief innovation officer Michelle Kydd Lee.
UTA’s Lyndsay Harding is the first woman chief financial officer of a top agency. Last year, agent Blair Kohan was named to the company’s board of directors, the first woman appointee since Tracey Jacobs in 2008.
Head over to Variety for more details on each studio and agency’s leadership inclusivity.
