Nina L. Diaz (Courtesy of VH1)
Nina L. Diaz will now head up unscripted and adult animation for Paramount Plus, Variety has learned exclusively.
The promotion was announced by Chris McCarthy in a memo to MTV Entertainment Group staffers on Thursday, which can be read in full below.
Diaz will now serve as chief creative officer for unscripted entertainment and adult animation at Paramount Plus, while remaining CCO and president of content for MTV Entertainment Group. She will continue to report to McCarthy. In addition, Grant Gish’s role as head of adult animation is expanding to include Paramount Plus across series and movies, with Gish still reporting to Diaz.
Furthermore, Lily Neumeyer will now be head of development for unscripted entertainment for Paramount Plus and MTV Entertainment, while Tolani Holmes is being promoted to the new role of senior vice president for development of unscripted entertainment for Paramount Plus and MTV Entertainment.
Unscripted executives Ben Hurvitz, Sitarah Pendelton, Todd Radnitz have all been given expanded roles as well, overseeing various key unscripted franchises for the company.
Per McCarthy’s memo, this reorganization means that the company will no longer have “stand-alone Movie or Alternative teams.” Given that, both Meghan Hooper White and Justin Rosenblatt are exiting ViacomCBS.
“We would like to thank both Meghan and Justin for their contributions and wish them the very best in their endeavors,” McCarthy wrote. “Thankfully, both have strong teams who will be integrated into our content group as we align series and movies by genre.”
Hooper White served as executive vice president and head of original movies and limited series for ViacomCBS’ Entertainment and Youth Group. She first joined ViacomCBS just over a year ago in May 2020 from A+E Networks with a mandate to expand the company’s production of made-for-TV movies. She was set to create 100 films annually for the conglomerate’s various network brands, including MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, VH1, CMT and the Smithsonian Channel.
In particular, Paramount Network was seen as a central hub for the aforementioned films. Variety exclusively reported in September 2020 that ViacomCBS was rebranding the network, shifting its focus from long form scripted shows to original movies. The media conglomerate had originally said that it would program one movie a week, or 52 a year, on the cable network. Yet one year later, few of the films have materialized as ViacomCBS has reorganized its ranks to funnel content and resources to streaming service Paramount Plus.
Rosenblatt was the senior vice president of alternative and comedy content for the Entertainment and Youth Group, having been promoted to that role in May 2020. He previously worked on shows like “Schitt’s Creek” at Pop and brought the “One Day at a Time” reboot to that network after it was canceled at Netflix. He started out at MTV2, overseeing shows like “Celebrity Deathmatch.”
Hey everyone,
Following up on the Paramount+ content leadership announcement from Bob, I am thrilled to share with you our first set of key appointments to support our group’s leadership role in driving Unscripted Entertainment and Adult Animation for the streaming service. This note will focus on the leadership level of the Development and Originals teams in those respective areas with others to follow.
• Nina L. Diaz will serve as Chief Creative Officer for Unscripted Entertainment and Adult Animation at Paramount+, expanding her current role as CCO/President of Content for MTV Entertainment Group. Nina will continue to report to me.
• Grant Gish will expand his role as Head of Adult Animation for MTVE to now include Paramount+ across Series and Movies. Grant will continue to report to Nina.
• Lily Neumeyer will expand her role to now include Head of Development for Unscripted Entertainment, Paramount+ and MTVE, continuing to report to Nina.
• Tolani Holmes is being promoted to the new role of SVP for Development, Unscripted Entertainment, Paramount+ and MTVE, reporting to Lily.
Also, we are expanding the role of several key executives to oversee our growing number of key franchises that are fueling our success across Paramount+ and MTV Entertainment worldwide and will continue to report to Nina. These leaders include: • Ben Hurvitz will expand his role to SVP, Unscripted Entertainment Franchises, Paramount+ and MTVE, overseeing Teen Mom, Basketball Wives, and 16 & franchises, as well as Ink Master.
• Sitarah Pendelton will expand her role to SVP, Unscripted Entertainment Franchises, Paramount+ and MTVE, overseeing Love & Hip Hop, Catfish and Are You the One? franchises as well as Behind the Music and The Real World Homecoming.
• Todd Radnitz will expand his role to SVP, Unscripted Entertainment Franchises, Paramount+ and MTVE, overseeing The Hills, Double Shot at Love and True Crime, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the upcoming Queen of the Universe.
With this realignment around Paramount+ Unscripted Entertainment and Adult Animation, we will no longer have stand-alone Movie or Alternative teams. As a result, Meghan Hooper White and Justin Rosenblatt are exiting the organization. We would like to thank both Meghan and Justin for their contributions and wish them the very best in their endeavors.
Thankfully, both have strong teams who will be integrated into our content group as we align series and movies by genre.
Please join me in congratulating these creative leaders on their well-deserved appointments and thank you all for your continued passion and hustle.
Chris
Variety's Joe Otterson contributed to this post.
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/meghan-hooper-white-viacomcbs-1235037581/#recipient_hashed=27d3e1decbdd57f8473998652dd3259302a49d011cd4c3c98101f80952412574
