The Top 100 People Of Color in Media: Part 7: 40-31
From creators to executives, from technicians to producers, the world of media and entertainment offers thousands of professions that cross and merge, giving the people that work in it the opportunity to fully discover how creative potential and business acumen often overlap. It is fascinating to study the careers of some of these people, thus understanding which opportunities they were able to seize and when did “the right moment” happen. This is why A Hot Set has compiled a list of “The Top 100 People of Color In Media”, a weekly series that for ten Mondays will explore a hundred of the most influential POCs in the entertainment industry. Below are numbers from 40 to 31, and you can find the previous article here. Stay tuned for next Monday’s list!
Veronika Kwan Vandenberg - Jon Kopaloff / Stringer
40. Veronika Kwan Vandenberg: Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of Distribution for Universal Pictures International (UPI), oversees the operations of UPI's operating entities, its independent partners, and sales agents. She oversees Universal's independent foreign distribution activities and the print-servicing/post-production adaptation and delivery of the company's international releases.
Vandenberg was President of International Distribution and Growth Initiatives at Warner Bros. before joining Universal. She oversaw international theatrical distribution, including local works, with an emphasis on strategy and partnerships in China. Vandenberg also worked on worldwide business and technology projects and collaborations to support new in-theater experiences. Vandenberg formerly served as Warner Bros.' President of Worldwide Distribution, where she was essential in realigning the foreign and domestic distribution divisions. She also spent 15 years as President of Worldwide Distribution, where she was in charge of all worldwide sales and distribution.
At Warner Bros., Vandenberg oversaw the studio's most successful years at the box office, distributing over 350 movies (including local-language films) and earning more than $40 billion at the box office. Many of Warner Bros.' notable film series, including the eight Harry Potter films, Fantastic Beasts, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, and The Matrix trilogy, were managed by her. Vandenberg began her career at Warner Bros. in 1990 and progressed through the ranks to become one of the studio's youngest presidents in 2000. Vandenberg is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Scott M. Mills - Gilbert Flores
39. Scott M. Mills: With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wharton, Scott M. Mills, now President and CEO of BET Media Group, started his career as deputy treasurer for the city of Philadelphia. He later ventured into the investment banking arena, which is when he met Robert L. Johnson, BET’s founder. Johnson took Mills under his wing and, in 1997, hired him in the Business Development division as Senior VP. Mills stayed with BET for the next sixteen years, climbing the ladder until he became President and CEO in 2007. In 2012 he became Executive VP and CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) of BET’s parent company Viacom (now known as Paramount Global), and then went back to his previous role at BET in 2018.
During his long tenure at the company, Mills is considered the most important figure in transforming BET from a cable channel into the multimedia company that it is today: Black Entertainment Network is now the largest media company focused on entertainment catered to engage and empower Black communities. BET was launched in 1980 by Johnson, Mills’ mentor, as one of the first ever forms of African American representation on the screen, and its philanthropical mission is still carried out by Mills’ own endeavors. One of these is the 2020’s campaign “Content For Change”, centered around social awareness through entertainment. The campaign was initiated by BET and later grew to become one of Paramount Global’s social operations. Content For Change focuses on analyzing viewership and content data to promote the production of new shows and movies that promote equity and inclusion; its mission is to transform “Paramount's creative ecosystem across three pillars—the content it produces, the creative supply chain that powers it, and the culture that underpins everything the company does.”
Alana Mayo - Eugene Gologursky / Stringer
38. Alana Mayo: Alana Mayo is the president of Orion Pictures and a film executive. Mayo traveled to Los Angeles after graduating from college and worked as an assistant to film producer Andrew Lazar for two years before being elevated to Creative Executive at Mad Chance Productions. She worked on films such as Get Smart and I Love You Philip Morris while at Mad Chance. Before joining Paramount Pictures in 2012, Mayo was a Creative Executive at 20th Century Fox for two years. At Paramount Pictures, she was promoted to Vice President of Production, where she worked on films such as A Quiet Place, Annihilation, The Big Short, Fences, Selma, and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
Mayo was hired by Vimeo in 2017 as Vice President and Head of Original Development to assist in creating original television programming for the platform. She was appointed Head of Production for Michael B. Jordan's production firm, Outlier Society, the following year, where she handled the production of films and television episodes such as Just Mercy, Without Remorse, Fahrenheit 451, David Makes Man, and Raising Dion. MGM hired Mayo in 2020 to revive its Orion Pictures banner to put an emphasis on underrepresented perspectives. While serving as the head of production at Outlier Society Productions, Mayo also acted as executive producer of the animated action series gen:LOCK. Mayo was named on the Fast Company Queer 50 list for 2022.
Spike Lee - Johnny Nunez
37. Spike Lee: Shelton "Spike" Lee is an American filmmaker and actor. Lee's work has consistently addressed race relations, black community difficulties, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political topics. He has earned an Academy Award, a Student Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and two Peabody Awards for his work. He has also received an Honorary BAFTA Award in 2002, an Honorary César Award in 2003, an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, a Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.
Since 1983, his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films. She's Gotta Have It (1986) marked Lee's directorial debut, and since then, he has written and directed movies such as School Daze (1988), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018), and Da 5 Bloods (2020). Lee was a director and filmmaker who acted in eleven of his feature films. Renowned actors like Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, and Samuel L. Jackson have all made breakthroughs and acclaimed performances in his films.
The Library of Congress chose Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls, and She's Gotta Have It for preservation in the National Film Registry because they are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Lee is also a well-known instructor. In 1993, he began teaching in the Graduate Film Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he also got his Master of Fine Arts. Lee was named the Creative Director in 2002 and is now a tenured professor at NYU.
Issa Rae - Prince Williams
36. Issa Rae: One of 2012’s Forbes “30 Under 30”, Issa Rae is an actress, producer, writer, an entertainment businesswoman. Her first project was the web series Awkward Black Girl, which premiered on YouTube in 2011. Written, directed, and produced by Rae, it was picked up by HBO in 2013 and made into the TV series Insecure, which aired on HBO in 2016 and effectively launched Issa Rae into stardom. She then leveraged the opportunities that came from being exposed to such a huge network to create more shows under the Warner Media umbrella, such as A Black Lady Sketch Show, RAP SH!T, and Sweet Life.
In 2011, her first production company, Issa Rae Presentations, became Issa Rae Productions as her fame quickly grew thanks to Awkward Black Girl. In 2020 she merged it with her other businesses (Color Creative, Raedio, and Easter Egg Productions) to create Hoorae, a multimedia company that produces and distributes content of rising creators, as well as promoting the collaboration between the various artists in the media industry. Rae often talks about the importance of digital to her career, and specifically the efficient use of digital media to introduce new creators. In fact, after trying to break into the entertainment industry through traditional means, she instead built an audience with her web series Awkward Black Girl and subverted he power dynamic between networks and creators: instead of her pitching to the studios, they reached out to her to distribute her show on a larger scale. The success of this strategy is what ultimately led her to build Color Creative, a management company and fund for “multi-hyphenate creatives” – those who act as multiple professional figures in media and entertainment. The various branches of Hoorae collaborate so that the synergies that multi-hyphenate creators build individually can translate into larger-scale businesses.
Lena Waithe - Arnold Turner / Stringer
35. Lena Waithe: Lena Waithe is an actress, producer, and screenwriter who is the creator of multiple renowned shows, for which she was the first African American woman to be awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 2017. She started her career in Hollywood as the assistant to the executive producer of Girlfriends (2000-2008), and later she became a writer for Fox and Nickelodeon. In 2015 she was cast in Netflix’s Master of None, which she also participated in writing and for which she won an Emmy Award.
In 2018, she founded Hillman Grad, led by CEO Rishi Rajani. The multimedia company now has many divisions, including Film and TV, Podcasts, and Music, as well as the non-profit Hillman Grad Foundation, which supports rising creatives from minority communities. The mission of the Hillman Grad is to showcase the unfiltered voices of artists coming from under-represented communities in virtually all areas of media. Hillman Grad Productions, the company’s film and TV studio, produced the renowned Sundance award-winning The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020), Showtime’s series The Chi (2018-ongoing), and the movie Queen & Slim (2019). It now has many deals in place with major media outlets such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney.
Miguel Roggero - Unilimted Style Photograohy
34. Miguel Roggero: After a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Wharton, Miguel Roggero quickly acquired an extensive experience as a key executive figure and founder of many companies, such as the B2B SaaS (Business-to-Business, Software-as-a-Service) education company eMind, LLC (later sold to The Washington Post), and the private investment company Linda Ridge Partners, LLC. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pew Research Center, which specializes in demographic research and non-partisan public opinion polling, as well as an Executive Member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association.
With six years of experience as Director of Business Development at Disney in the 90s, in 2006 Roggero became CFO of Fuse Media, an entertainment company that produces and distributes “purpose-driven content” on a global scale. The channel was launched in 1994 as MuchMusic USA, a joint venture between Rainbow Media (now AMC Networks), Cablevision, and CHUM Limited. It was then rebranded as Fuse in 2003, was acquired by SiTV Media in 2014, and finally, in 2015, merged with NuvoTV, which targeted a Latino audience. Now, Fuse Media caters to a young adult, Gen Z audience with the mission to “[ignite] culture with vibrant entertainment that celebrates and amplifies fresh, underrepresented voices.”
Kevin Hart - David Livingston / Stringer
33. Kevin Hart: Kevin Hart is an Emmy and Grammy Award-winning American actor and comedian who began his career as a stand-up comic. Hart has since been in Hollywood films and on television, in addition to stand-up. Hart got his big break when Judd Apatow cast him in a recurring role on the television show Undeclared (2001). Among his later credits are Paper Soldiers (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Soul Plane (2004), Think Like a Man (2012), Ride Along (2014), About Last Night (2014), The Secret Life of Pets film franchise (2016-2019), the Jumanji film franchise (2017-present), and Night School (2018). He also created and starred as a fake version of himself in Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013-2016).
Hart's comedic stardom expanded even further with the publication of his debut stand-up CD, I'm a Grown Little Man (2009). He has since produced four more comedy albums: Seriously Funny (2010), Laugh at My Pain (2011), Let Me Explain (2013), and What Now? (2016). In 2015, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the World's 100 Most Influential People. In 2017, Hart co-founded the Laugh Out Loud Network, a subscription video streaming business, with Lionsgate. Laugh Out Loud (LOL) has four divisions: LOL Network, LOL Studios, LOL Audio, and LOL X!. Every one of them generates, develops, and distributes amusing content for digital, audio, and immersive channels. LOL includes stand-up comedy performances, scripted and unscripted video content, social media programming, radio, podcasting, and live events. LOL Network partners with Plex, PlutoTV, Peacock, Roku, Snap, Xumo, and YouTube for distribution, while LOL Studios has created content for Quibi, Peacock, and Katz Networks (BounceTV).
In 2009, Hart co-founded HartBeat Productions, a global, multi-platform media company creating entertainment at the intersection of comedy and culture. Hart is currently the chairman of the production company. Alongside LOL, HartBeat expands its distribution network, along with its marketing, sales, experiential, branded content, and digital and social capabilities. Hart continues to develop, star, and produce feature films, television, and podcasts via HartBeat for his various partners like Netflix, Peacock, Sirius XM, and Audible. The most recent works done by HartBeat Productions include the comedy series Dave (2020-Present), The Man From Toronto (2022), True Story (2021), Hart of the City (2016-Present), and many more.
Will Smith, Kosaku Yada, Miguel Melendez & Jada Pinkett Smith - Nocky J Smims / Stringer / Han Mygung / Twitter / Westbrook Entertainment
32. Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Miguel Melendez, & Kosaku Yada (Co-Founders): Westbrook Inc. is an independent entertainment and media company founded by actor Will Smith, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, talent manager Miguel Melendez, and entrepreneur Kosaku Yada in 2019. Westbrook's aim is to create, sell, produce, and market premium content in various genres, mediums, and distribution platforms. Westbrook includes Westbrook Studios, a film, television, and documentary production company; Westbrook Media, which develops and produces unique unscripted content in collaboration with artists, media, and brand partners; and Westbrook International Holdings, a division of the company that has a collaboration with the German license and distribution firm Telepool. King Richard (2021), Westbrook's debut film, received widespread acclaim and numerous awards, including six nominations at the 94th Academy Awards and four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, with Smith winning Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama. In addition, the business recently signed a first-look arrangement with National Geographic for 2021.
Miguel Melendez is an executive producer of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talks which until recently aired on Facebook Watch and an executive producer of Will Smith’s The Bucket List, which was Facebook Watch’s biggest launch to date. Before co-founding Westbrook Inc., Melendez did talent management at Three Six Zero, an international management and entertainment company specializing in music, film, television, and the digital content landscape.
Kosaku Yada is an entrepreneur and investor serving as CEO of Westbrook Inc. He is also the CEO of the Smith Family Office, a group that manages the assets and business enterprises of Will Smith’s family. Before working with Will Smith and his family, Yada was Managing Director at Altpoint Ventures, a $400mm venture fund, and co-founded Sonar Group, a multi-strategy fund based in Tokyo.
Tara Duncan - Unique Nicole / Stringer
31. Tara Duncan: As President of the Onyx Collective, a content brand under Disney Entertainment, Tara Duncan leads a project that showcases underrepresented voices within one of the giants of the entertainment industry, thus making use of its capillary reach. The brand launched in 2021, and its first series Reasonable Doubt premiered in September 2022; from then on it announced a slate of projects in collaboration with some remarkable Black creators, such as Oprah Winfrey and Questlove.
Duncan was involved with some of the most important ground-breaking series in modern television. When she took up her production job at AMC, it was the very beginning of the network’s engagement in original productions, and her first day consisted in watching the pilot of Breaking Bad. Later on, she redirected her television career into streaming, which, in her own words, gave her the opportunity to “make more programming for more types of audiences because you’re not as beholden to a linear schedule”. It was then that she became an executive creator for Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and Narcos, as well as Amazon Prime Video’s Bosch.