The Envelope, June 17, 2025

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A SPECIAL IS S U E OF THE

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Writers June 17, 2025

What’s inside

p 30 SPY SERIES CBS CNG

p 58 RATINGS REPORT

Jason Armond Los Angeles Times

p 14 WRITERS ROUNDTABLE

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THE CONTENDERS

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R Y A N GREE N P A RAMO U NT +; JASON ARMOND LO S AN GEL ES T I MES; C BS

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A SPECIAL IS S U E OF THE

JUNE 17, 2 0 2 5 VOL. CXLIV NO. 196

latimes.com/theenvelope

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Cover photo by Shayan Asgharnia For The Times

“Dark Winds” star Zahn McClarnon (p 12) shares why he “broke down” over his character’s Season 3 arc. Mike Schur and Ted Danson (p 13) explain how their show “A Man on the Inside” takes an optimistic view of aging and retirement.

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THE SPOTLIGHT

A closer look at five TV series that used “oners” to great effect this season (p 32).

Six reboots that discovered the secret to Emmy success (p 33). Konrad Kay and Mickey Down (p 36) on slowly finding the soul of HBO’s “Industry.”

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THE INDUSTRY

Judy Blume’s books have become a hot commodity in Hollywood. Mara Brock Akil (p 56), the showrunner of Netflix’s “Forever,” talks about updating a classic Blume novel for the digital age and why the author’s work is as relevant as ever.

COVER STORY Actor Kaitlyn Dever sat down with The Envelope to discuss her much-talkedabout role in Season 2 of “The Last of Us” and the surrealness of filming while grieving her mother’s death. p 20

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BUZZMETER IN THE STUDIO p

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ONE SHOT

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Writers June 17, 2025

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Executive Editor TERRY TANG Creative Director & Deputy Managing Editor AMY KING Assistant Managing Editor, Entertainment CRAIG NAKANO

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FOR YOUR EMMY ® CONSIDER ATION

OUTSTANDING REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM OUTSTANDING HOST - ALAN CUMMING

HHHH”

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THE TELEGRAPH

“ THE BEST SEASON YET.” DAILY BEAST

Writers June 17. 2025

BuzzMeter

Our Emmy experts share their picks

LORRAINE ALI

Los Angeles Times PARKER POSEY, “THE WHITE LOTUS” ALLISON JANNEY, “THE DIPLOMAT” KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT” CHRISTINA RICCI, “YELLOWJACKETS” CARRIE COON, “THE WHITE LOTUS” PATRICIA ARQUETTE, “SEVERANCE”

Parker Posey is one of the best things about “White Lotus” and a respected entity, so expect to see her nominated.

KRISTEN BALDWIN

DRAMA SUPP. ACTRESS

Entertainment Weekly

for supporting actress, with Katherine LaNasa of “The Pitt” barely holding on to the top spot. Trey Mangum says, “Dichen Lachman’s remains one of my favorite ‘Severance’ performances, but I … also live for the rally behind Katherine LaNasa.” ¶ Longtime indie darling Parker Posey edges out longtime Emmy darling Allison Janney for second, with three other “White Lotus” actresses — Carrie Coon, Natasha Rothwell and Aimee Lou Wood — not far behind. That leaves “Andor” on the outside, though Tracy Brown holds out hope for Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.

GLENN WHIPP

Los Angeles Times

You can find all our picks at latimes.com/ buzzmeter

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MATT ROUSH

TV Guide

KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT” PARKER POSEY, “THE WHITE LOTUS” ALLISON JANNEY, “THE DIPLOMAT” CARRIE COON, “THE WHITE LOTUS” AIMEE LOU WOOD, “THE WHITE LOTUS” NATASHA ROTHWELL, “THE WHITE LOTUS”

KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT” PARKER POSEY, “THE WHITE LOTUS” ALLISON JANNEY, “THE DIPLOMAT” CARRIE COON, “THE WHITE LOTUS” ISABELA MERCED, “THE LAST OF US” NATASHA ROTHWELL, “THE WHITE LOTUS”

I’d be happy for one or two from “The Pitt” to earn nods while I wait for the cast to win the ensemble honor at next year’s SAG Awards.

Veteran character actress Katherine LaNasa makes the most of a role of a lifetime as “The Pitt’s” supernaturally capable charge nurse Dana.

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TREY MANGUM Shadow and Act

PARKER POSEY, “THE WHITE LOTUS” AIMEE LOU WOOD, “THE WHITE LOTUS” CARRIE COON, “THE WHITE LOTUS” NATASHA ROTHWELL, “THE WHITE LOTUS” PATRICIA ARQUETTE, “SEVERANCE” KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT”

The women of “The White Lotus” will have to fight it out.

But voters need to check out Karen Pittman’s magnificent performance in “Forever.”

TRACY BROWN

Los Angeles Times

KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT” ALLISON JANNEY, “THE DIPLOMAT” DICHEN LACHMAN, “SEVERANCE” ISABELA MERCED, “THE LAST OF US” PARKER POSEY, “THE WHITE LOTUS” TAYLOR DEARDEN, “THE PITT”

KATHERINE LANASA, “THE PITT” PATRICIA ARQUETTE, “SEVERANCE” ALLISON JANNEY, “THE DIPLOMAT” ISABELA MERCED, “THE LAST OF US” CARRIE COON, “THE WHITE LOTUS” GENEVIEVE O’REILLY, “ANDOR”

Dichen Lachman’s remains one of my favorite “Severance” performances, but I also live for the rally behind Katherine LaNasa and wish we could fit more from “The Pitt” in here.

I hope at least one of the slots can be filled by a performance from “Andor.” Genevieve O’Reilly’s rousing speech is a standout among the show’s memorable monologues.

M A X ; H B O ; N ETFL IX ; I LL U STR AT IO NS B Y K AGAN MC L EO D F O R TH E TIME S

THE FIERCENESS OF THE DRAMA SERIES COMPETITION STANDS OUT IN THE RACE

In The Studio ...

Four podcast highlights

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gating

Yvonne Villarreal Host

→ Amy ShermanPalladino on the set of “Étoile.”

... with AMY SHERMANPALLADINO and DANIEL PALLADINO THE MARRIED COLLABORATORS BEHIND “GILMORE GIRLS,”

Scan to watch and listen to The Envelope video podcast

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“Bunheads” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” have always had a soft spot for the arts, but their latest series, “Étoile,” takes that affection to a whole new level. Set inside occasionally allied, occasionally rivalrous dance companies in New York and Paris that swap talent to drum up interest, the Prime Video comedy depicts the dancers, choreographers and administrators who keep ballet going, against the odds. ¶ The pair recently stopped by The Envelope video podcast to discuss why the dance world was wary of the project, translating their rapid-fire dialogue into French and more. Here are highlights from that conversation. latimes.com/theenvelope

The arts have struggled since the pandemic to come back to where they were before that.

Did this premise start message-forward?

SHERMAN-PALLADINO It’s

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Where do you start with an undertaking like this? What was the first hurdle?

PALLADINO The biggest hurdle

been with us for a while, but it takes on an extra urgency in the times that we’re in, where the arts are completely under siege and theaters, especially small theaters, regional theaters, they’re being decimated. ... When we went to school, there were arts in school — there was drama, there was dance, there was music and singing, and now that’s become unimportant, [but] it’s actually the most important thing. It’s the one way that humans can totally communicate with each other, past language barriers, past education barriers, past cultural barriers. Without it, we cease to be human. And I think, to me, you lose the arts, it’s game over. It’s time to just Big Bang this s— and move on with the human race.

that’s unique to this was putting together a corps of 20 dancers to be the company in each of the cities. That took a long time. They’re real dancers — a lot of them are still professional dancers that are taking some time off or just retired or feeling like they want a break from that world. We had to do international auditions to draw people from London or Paris or Stuttgart or New York... That was painstaking. It paid off, though, because we had that great corps; that was the corps that was in most of the dances, that was the corps that were playing extras. We gave a lot of them lines, so they were real dancers talking. That was probably the biggest thing.

Actually shooting, the scheduling thing we ran into with Paris is that they had this thing called, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, the Olympics.

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What was the initial reaction from within the dance community?

SHERMAN-PALLADINO They

were wary. We had to do a lot of, “We come in peace” — a lot.

Because a couple things have happened in entertainment and ballet. One is that, because you see all this fluid beauty onstage and a lot [of] tulle, it’s easy to think that the fun thing to lean into i s, “But offstage, they’re all vomiting and pushing each other off of buildings!” ... One of our big things when we approached our dancers is to say, “This is not a show about dance. This is a show about dancers. This is about you guys and your story.”

You’re known for the rapid-fire dialogue that’s often heavy on the pop culture references.

Here, you’re trying to do that in English and in French.Talk to me about navigating that.

PALLADINO Apparently French

has one-sixth the vocabulary of English ...We have way too many words. There are days when we went in and we were reading the script over, and I had written the scene, but it was in French and I’d forgotten what the scene was about, and I had to remind myself.

And the actors are spitfiring all this stuff ...Sometimes at the end of a scene, we’d turn to our French assistants and say, “Was that funny?” [We’d ask], “Did they say all the words?”

PHILIPPE ANTONELLO PRIME VIDEO; ILLUSTRATION BY KAGAN MCLEOD FOR THE TIMES

Writers June 17, 2025

All things awards.

All year long.

Stay on top of awards season yearround with The Envelope Newsletter — a weekly digest of curated articles and “best bets” for everything from the year’s most talked-about TV to the most groundbreaking films. Plus, every Friday during awards season, get commentary, predictions and behind-the-scenes insights from columnist Glenn Whipp.

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Zahn McClarnon p 12 ‘A Man on the Inside’ p 13 COVER STORY: Kaitlyn Dever p 20

Photograph of Seth Rogen

by Jason Armond

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WRITERS ROUNDTABLE p 14

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The Contenders Actor

that causes him to revisit a sex abuse trauma from his past. Were those sequences filmed on a closed set?

The director, Erica Tremblay, closed the set down for one scene specifically, when I’m dealing with the priest and my young cousin. It was great to be around collaborators who made me feel safe in these vulnerable moments. I could relate, since I’ve had events in my past very similar to what Joe’s going through.

Sorry to hear that.

No, it’s OK. It certainly doesn’t define me.

But it’s the first time in my career where I walked into my producer’s office at one point and broke down a little bit because I was having a hard time with those blurred lines between reality and pretending.

Joe’s also trying to solve the murder of a Navajo boy while Jenna Elfman’s FBI agent looks into the mysterious Season 2 death of mining mogul B.J. Vines.

When Joe left B.J. Vines in the desert to die, he kind of did [to him] what happened to the Navajo people in the 1800s when the government put them on “the Long Walk.”

A lot of them starved to death, having to walk hundreds of miles in bare feet in the middle of winter. That was Joe’s justification: “OK, you can make it back to civilization on your own.” As a Navajo man, as a principled man, Joe finds himself in turmoil over that decision.

‘Blurred lines between reality and pretending’ ‘Dark Winds’ star Zahn McClarnon explains why his character’s Season 3 arc hit close to home

Story by Hugh Hart ■ Photograph by Jason Armond

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third season of “Dark Winds” crawling across the desert in the dead of night with a wounded leg and a dart in his neck, but for Zahn McClarnon’s Joe Leaphorn, things can always get worse.

“There’s a lot at stake for Joe,” said McClarnon, whose Navajo police lieutenant contends with marital discord, childhood trauma and an FBI investigation.

“He’s made some mistakes and the people around him are suffering because of it.”

The AMC series, based on novels by Tony Hillerman, follows Navajo Nation

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tribal cops Leaphorn, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) in the 1970s as they solve crimes within a white power structure that devalues the lives of Native Americans.

McClarnon, speaking from Camel Rock Studios in Santa Fe, N.M., took a break from filming “Dark Winds’ ” fourth season to talk about head trips, authenticity and the power of understatement.

In the surreal episode “Ábidoo’niidę ę (What He Had Been Told),” Joe gets injected with a ketamine-tipped dart

You’re No. 1 on the call sheet and most of your scenes are pretty intense. How do you decompress?

Usually after a season, I go up to my mom’s house in Nebraska and hang out with her. I’m 58 years old and a lot more healthy now than I was in my earlier life, when I struggled with addiction. I finally got clean and sober 25 years ago, with help from a lot of people, when I had my big moment of clarity — that I deserved more than what I was doing to myself. I use those experiences in my acting today.

You recently appeared in “Reservation Dogs,” co-created by a Seminole Nation citizen, Sterlin Harjo, and you serve as an executive producer on “Dark Winds.” It must be heartening to make shows that put the Native American experience front and center.

It’s critical that Native kids are finally seeing themselves on films and TV in an authentic, positive way. With “Dark Winds,” even though Tony Hillerman was a white guy, we’ve recontextualized his books with a Native writers’ room, Native consultants, Native actors, Native directors. “Dark Winds” is opening doors for people to see us in a different way than they’ve ever seen us before.

The Contenders Creator, Actor

The lesson of their show?

Call up your mothers Mike Schur and Ted Danson’s ‘A Man on the Inside’ takes on the golden years with humor and optimism

Story by Hugh Hart ■ Photograph by Ethan Benavidez For The Times

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an earlier version of a scene that we’d changed. She said “Fine, give me two minutes.” She read through it and memorized her lines faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.

DANSON Stephen McKinley Henderson, who plays Calbert, is one robust human being. I think it was his fifth or sixth day having COVID. He would much rather have been in bed, but on our first day of shooting, we took this walk through the redwoods and it just rejuvenated him. The depth of truth in Stephen’s eyes — it’s hard to be a bad actor around him.

OME MIGHT SUMMARIZE

the takeaway from Mike Schur’s retirement home comedy “A Man on the Inside,” starring Ted Danson, as “We’re all gonna die… plus jokes.” Schur would beg to differ. “I might say it has a slightly more optimistic outlook,” he proposes. “Something like: ‘We’re all going to die so live the best life you can as long as you can… plus jokes.’ ” Schur dreamed up the Netflix series after his producing partner Morgan Sackett insisted he watch the Chilean documentary “The Mole Agent” about 83-year-old Sergio, who goes undercover at a nursing home to catch a thief. Sergio is small and Danson quite tall but Schur saw them as kindred spirits. “Having worked with Ted on ‘The Good Place,’ ” Schur says, “I knew what kind of parts he likes. After I watched ‘The Mole Agent,’ I just saw the whole thing.”

And, he adds, “It’s a real joy to write for Ted in general but especially because he truly is a gifted physical comedian. His movements are very delicate, very practiced; he wants to work them out and get it right.”

Danson, 77, came on board after seeing the documentary. “It was so endearing and sweet,” the actor told The Envelope. “Then I went around to nursing homes in Los Angeles and thought, ‘Oh no. This is not going to work.’ I was so sad and depressed walking around because it was bringing up memories of my own grandparents. But some of the residents in these homes were willing to talk to us and they were full of funny things — the sex life in those places is rampant! — so I put my trust in Mike to make a show that was funny and sad and poignant.”

In separate video interviews, Schur and Danson discussed crafting senior-centric entertainment.

Ted plays widowed ex-professor Charles, who joins a retirement community so he can figure out who stole a resident’s necklace. How did you approach the “whodunit” aspect of the plot?

SCHUR This isn’t “Knives Out.” The goal is

At the retirement home, everybody’s got problems — memory loss, cancer, loneliness — but these darker scenes alternate with some very deft comedic moments.

DANSON The funny [idea] that I walked in with was that Charles was so excited to be a private eye, he’s like a little boy, but he’s horrible at it. Terrible. It was also fun to bounce off of Lilah Richcreek Estrada, who plays Charles’ boss, because she just can’t believe she has to put up with someone as lame as me.

not to make people gasp in surprised dismay: “Ooh, let’s make it seem like it’s this person but then we reveal it’s actually that person.” There are chunks of mystery but this is a comedy about a 76-year-old man broadening his life at a moment when he’s been kind of shrinking down to a little tiny bubble.

DANSON It’s really about, “Let’s tell the truth about the joys and sadness and challenges of end of life,” which is something we don’t talk about much in this country.

We had to thread the needle of being real, not saccharine, while also finding the laughter.

SCHUR Our staff wrote dozens and dozens of excellent, well-constructed, funny, interesting, surprising jokes that we threw in the garbage can because they weren’t right for our show’s particular tone.

Which is?

SCHUR Basically, does our show contribute to that feeling of making us want to call our moms?

“Man on the Inside” showcases some great older actors too.

SCHUR Sally [Struthers, who plays Virginia] blew the doors off the place she was so funny, so sharp. We accidentally gave her

Before his daughter Emily, played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis, gives him a nudge, Charles has pretty much given up on the idea of life as an adventure.

How did you connect with that aspect of aging?

SCHUR We wanted to see Charles step outside the little cocoon he’s created for himself with his cozy fire and takeout food and crossword puzzles. He takes a tiny step outside and that leads to a bigger step and a bigger step. Along the way, he hurts people unintentionally and blunders through things, as we all do, but the lesson by the end of the show that hopefully comes across is that living life and making mistakes is still better than not living life.

DANSON My wife, Mary Steenburgen, worked with Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen on [2018 movie] “The Book Club.” I got to meet Jane when she was turning 80 and I was turning 70. I was saying, “Maybe it’s time to get my ducks in order and find a nice soft landing place,” and Jane was like: “No! Put your foot on the pedal and go, fast as you can, take big chunks out of life, keep living, keep being of service, keep being part of a community, keep trying to make a difference.”

Speaking of Mary, Ted, it’s been reported that she’s joining “A Man on the Inside” for Season 2.

DANSON And we are giggling with anticipation! Mary has a great character, we get to run lines and it’s delicious because, without giving anything away, this next season is funnier and the mystery has more at stake.

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Tales of a fast-changing TV industry

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JEN STATSKY

SETH ROGEN

LAUREN LEFRANC

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Lauren, you’re making a series that is tethered to source material that’s really beloved by fans. I’m curious what the conversations are like with DC, or “The Batman” director Matt Reeves, when your series has to fit into a larger canon.

LEFRANC I knew where Oz ended in “The Batman.” I knew my job was to arc him to rise to power and achieve a certain level of power by the end. Outside of that, I was given carte blanche and I could just play. And that’s the most exciting thing to me. We both were in agreement that this should be a character study of this man. I love digging into the psychology of characters.

So many people were like, “Do you feel pressure? What’s this like for you?” And I was like, “Am I numb as a human?” I don’t feel that kind of pressure. I feel pressure to tell a great story and to write interesting, engaging characters that are surprising and to kind of surprise myself. I’m not the first type of person you would think who would get an opportunity to write a guy like Oz, necessarily, and to write into this type of world. I think there’s been a lot of crime dramas and a lot of genre shows or features that don’t have the lens that I have on a man like that. So I took that seriously. And I also really wanted to pepper the world with really interesting, complicated women as well. I felt like, in some of these genres, sometimes those characters weren’t as fully formed.

Craig, you know what it’s like working with source material, and we knew the fate of fan-favorite character Joel, who dies in Part 2 of the video game. Tell me about your experience of the death of Joel in the video game — playing it — and how that informed what you wanted to see out of Season 2 and where exactly it would fall.

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When you gather the creative minds behind six of the most entertaining and acclaimed shows of 2025, the conversation is destined for narrative intrigue. The writers who took part in this year’s Envelope Roundtable touched on social media blackouts, release strategies, runaway production and more. ¶ The panelists are Debora Cahn of “The Diplomat,” about an American foreign service officer thrust into a thorny web of geopolitics; R. Scott Gemmill of “The Pitt,” which focuses on frontline healthcare workers inside a Pittsburgh hospital during a single 15-hour shift; Lauren LeFranc of “The Penguin,” a reimagining of the Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot as a rising Gotham City kingpin, Oz Cobb; Craig Mazin of “The Last of Us,” an adaptation of the popular video game series about survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic; Seth Rogen of “The Studio,” a chronicle of the film industry’s mercenary challenges as seen through the eyes of a newly appointed studio chief; and Jen Statsky of “Hacks,” about an aging comic’s complicated relationship with her outspoken mentee. ¶ Read on for excerpts from our discussion.

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MAZIN I was upset when it happened, but I

wasn’t upset at the game. It was, narratively, the right thing to do. If you make a story that is about moral outcomes and the consequences of our behavior, and somebody goes through a hospital and murders a whole lot of people, and kind of dooms the world to be stuck in this terrible place, and takes away the one hope they have of getting out of it, yeah, there should be a consequence. If there’s no consequence or even a mild consequence, then it’s a bit neutered, isn’t it? It made sense to me and it made sense that if we were going to tell the story, that was the story we were going to tell. Sometimes people do ask me, “Was there any part of you that was like, ‘Hey, let’s not have Joel die?’ ” No. That would be the craziest thing of all time.

How quick were you watching the real-time reaction from fans?

MAZIN I don’t do that.

ROGEN But how do you get validation?

How do you know to feel good?

STATSKY Can you teach me not to look?

MAZIN I think I’m looking for validation.

Really what I’m looking for is to repeat abusive behavior toward me — that’s what my therapist says. For all of our shows, millions and millions and millions of people are watching these around the world. And if 10,000 people on Twitter come at you for something, that is a negligible number relative to the size of the audience, but it sure doesn’t feel [like it]. So I made a choice. The downside is I do miss the applause. Who among us doesn’t love applause? I’ve just had to give that feeling up to not feel the bad feelings.

With a show like “The Studio” or “Hacks,” does it feel cathartic to lampoon the industry or show the ridiculous nature of the business and the

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WRiTeRS decision-makers sometimes?

ROGEN What’s funny is, as we were writing

the show, we never used the word “satire.”

To us, the goal was not to make fun of any element of the industry — honestly, it’s mostly based on myself and my own fears, as someone who’s in charge of things, that I’m making the wrong choices, and that I’m prioritizing the wrong things, and that I’m convincing my idols to work with me and then I’m letting them down, and I’m championing the wrong ideas. That I’m making things worse and that I’m giving notes to people that are detrimental rather than exciting, and that I’m mitigating my own risks rather than trying to bolster creative swings. That was the startling moment where I realized I personally relate in my darkest moments to a studio executive more than I do a creative person in the industry in many ways. And that was kind of the moment where I was like, “Oh, that’s a funny thing to explore.”

STATSKY But it’s interesting when you put it like that, because of the part of showrunning where you become management and you’re much more on that business side [of] running a show. We’re executives in many ways too.

MAZIN I have a question for you. How do you deal with the fact that — as we kind of move through things as writers, we are always comrades, we are colleagues of people. When you become a showrunner, you don’t notice it at first, but there is this barrier between you and everybody, and one day you wake up and realize, “Oh, it’s because they look at me and see someone who can fire them, who can elevate them, who can change their lives for better or worse.” And you start to feel very, very lonely all of a sudden.

STATSKY Oh, there’s a group text you’re not on.

MAZIN And it’s about you.

STATSKY It’s about you. It’s such a hard part of this job that I struggle with very much because as writers, we are empathetic to others, and we are observing the world, and we are trying to commune with people as best as possible. But then you do this thing and you’re like, “I like writing, I like writing, I like writing.” And they’re like, “Great. Now here’s a 350-person company to manage and you become a boss.” I struggle with it a lot, the thinking of people’s feelings, thinking of people’s emotions, wanting to be in touch with them, but then also, at the end of the day, having to sometimes make really difficult management-type decisions that affect people’s livelihood. I find it very challenging. I need your therapist for that as well.

Debora, you have a character, a fe-

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‘I FEEL PRESSURE TO TELL A GREAT STORY AND TO WRITE INTERESTING, ENGAGING CHARACTERS THAT ARE SURPRISING.’ Lauren LeFranc, “The Penguin”

male vice president, who’s been doing the bidding of an older president whose capabilities have been called into question, and spoiler alert, she becomes president. The season launched a week or so before the 2024 presidential election. What was that like? And how is it writing a political drama now versus when you were working on “The West Wing”?

CAHN Back in “The West Wing” days, we would have people come in, people who worked in the field, and we would say, “What are you worried about that we don’t know to worry about yet?” And that was a pretty good barometer for getting an interesting story that was likely to still be topical in a year. That’s all you want, really, is to not be completely lapped by the news when you’re trying to tell a story that’s not going to go to air for a year. Now, we’re released from any boundaries of any kind.

There’s nothing that we can do that’s more absurd than what’s happening. Suddenly, we’re doing a documentary, or we’re doing a balm for what you wish government was like or what you vaguely remember it was like. But we’re trying to stay in the headspace of, “What is the foreign policy community going to be thinking about in the next two years?” and trying to find something that will continue to feel relevant. But more and more it’s like, “What are the conflicts that sane people have with each other in this field? What happens when you can look at two people and you feel like they both have good values and they are kind to children? What do they fight about?”

Let’s talk about release strategies.

There’s the traditional, week-to-week model and the more modern, all-atonce model. There’s a mix of both in the marketplace. Scott, with “The Pitt,” you could just see the way peo-

ple rallied around every week to see what happened next. What do you like about the weekly release?

GEMMILL I’ve only ever done that. This is my first streaming show, and we are doing it in a traditional drop a week. So I’ve never had a show that was bingeable. I don’t know any other way. At one point, they were going to release three episodes at once, but they only released two [at the start]. I don’t have a dog in that fight. I think my show, just because of the nature of it, would be very hard to binge.

ROGEN As someone who’s been bingeing it, I can attest to that. [To Cahn] Yours comes out all at once.

CAHN It does. I don’t love that. It’s not what I would choose. I think Netflix offers a lot of other pluses. [It’s] got a big audience all over the world and that’s really nice. But I came up in broadcast television, and the idea that you’ve created this thing and it’s a story that you’ve experienced over time, and then people are like two days and done, it just — MAZIN It’s weird.

CAHN And it changes the way that you write.

MAZIN Over the last few years, what’s happening is, for shows that are coming out week by week, people will now save up three at a time. So they don’t want to watch week after week. There’s this weird accordion thing going on, and I don’t know where this is going. I don’t think any of us do. I’m a little nervous about the week by week. I am just hoping that it remains.

I thought for sure one day Netflix would go, “Why are we doing this?” Because I really didn’t understand.

I still don’t understand.

CAHN I have this question every three months.

ROGEN They don’t have an answer.

CAHN It works for them.

GEMMILL Wonder why they complain about grind. Because it’s not there. Well, it’s because you put it all out at once.

MAZIN But then what I’m worried about is that they’re right. I’m just wondering if people are starting to lose their patience.

STATSKY Attention span. I think they are. I’ve even noticed, because we used to drop two a week. In this season for “Hacks,” we’ve done one a week. I saw a couple tweets where people were like, “Why are the episodes shorter this year?” I was like, “Well, they’re not. You used to watch two.” But I do think the one-a-week model, because now people are so trained [to binge] — like you’re saying, the attention span, it’s scary. I don’t think people want to watch like that anymore.

ROGEN I produced “The Boys,” and we actually went from them all coming out at once to weekly. And it did not affect the viewership in any way, shape or form was what we were told. What it did affect, that we could just see, was it sustained cultural impact. People talked about it for three months instead of three weeks of incredibly intense chatter. It just occupied more space in people’s heads, which I think was beneficial to the show.

CAHN When they’re coming out one a week, you can repeat things that you can’t when they’re coming out all together. You have to look at them in terms of, did they each have the same rhythm? Are they each really featuring the same characters and storylines?

You have to think about it in terms of, “If people do

three at a time, what’s their experience going to be?”

It’s terrible.

The talk of the town is runaway production and how to stop it. Scott, “The Pitt” is set in Pittsburgh and you did film exteriors there, but principal production happened on the Warner Bros. lot. Talk about why that was important for you.

GEMMILL The show could have been shot in Moose Jaw. But it was important to bring the work here, so we fought really hard to get the California tax credit. The most important part of my job, besides writing producible scripts that are on time, is to keep my show on the air as long as possible, to keep everyone employed as long as possible. And that’s the thing I like the best about it. This is the first show that Noah [Wyle]’s done since he left “ER” that’s shot in Los Angeles. It’s a shame. There’s more production now, but when we first were at Warner Bros. for this, it was a ghost town.

It’s so sad because I’ve been in the business for 40 years and still get excited when I go on a lot. And to see them become unused just because it’s cheaper to shoot somewhere else ... and there’s so many talented people here, and it’s hard on their families if you have to go to Albuquerque for six months. I don’t ever want to leave the stage again.

MAZIN We did our postproduction on the Warner Bros. lot, but we shoot in Canada. And I love Canada.

But, yeah, of course, I’d love to be home. I like doing postproduction here. I’ll take what I get. The financial realities are pretty stark, that’s the problem. If you are making a smaller show, the gap is not massive. If you’re making a larger show, every percentage becomes a bigger amount of money and also represents a larger amount of people to employ. But what’s good is it seems like they’re starting to get their act together in Sacramento. I do worry sometimes it’s a little bit too late, because the rest of the world seems to be in an arms race to see how many incentives they can give to get production to go there.

I’m hoping that at least we can start to move the needle a bit because, listen, that Warner Bros. lot, when I was a kid starting out, I would go on that lot, I would see the little “ER” backlot with the diner and all of it. And I was like, “That’s on TV. It’s here.” And now I walk around the Warner Bros. lot and it’s just a single tram full of tourists and no one else. And it’s so, so sad.

LEFRANC It’s really heartbreaking. You used to be able to write what you’re doing, produce, do post all on the same lot. You had a family that you were able to form, and you could mentor writers. I would not be able to be a showrunner if not for all the people who came before me who mentored me, and I could walk to set, produce my own episode, and then I can walk to post.

It’s so hard now where you’re asking writers, especially if networks aren’t paying for writers to go to set, “Can you pay for yourself to fly to New York?” It just makes it so hard to be able to educate people in the way that I feel like I was privileged enough to be educated. What are we going to do about that?

GEMMILL Mistakes get made. The best part about the whole business is it’s collaborative. But when you’re separated by thousands of miles, sometimes there’s a disconnect.

DEBORA CAHN

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knows the words to the “Bob the Builder” theme song.

She’s singing it — we’re singing it — which isn’t something I expected when preparing to talk with her again after we took a deep dive into the season finale of “The Last of Us.” But then, even the most meticulous research had failed to turn up that Dever’s father, Tim, voiced Bob the Builder, as well as another icon of children’s television, Barney the Dinosaur.

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Dever says, laughing. “Barney the Dinosaur. Crazy.”

Is it a reach to think that’s why Dever is having such a blast right now in Australia shooting “Godzilla x Kong: Supernova,” the latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise?

After all, this isn’t her first rodeo with a dinosaur — even if this time around, the creature isn’t purple or huggable or even tangible, just a green-screen dream.

“I want to meet Godzilla,” Dever says. “I just don’t know if, outside my imagination, I ever will. But that’s OK. My imagination is a powerful thing.”

Dever is home in L.A. for a few days, taking a break from filming, enjoying time with her dad and her younger sisters, anticipating her return for good in July when she’ll have enough time for, among other things, a meal or three at the venerable Valley Mexican restaurant Casa Vega. She’s experiencing serious taco withdrawal right now.

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‘GRIEF DOES A REALLY INTERESTING THING WITH YOUR BRAIN. IT MESSES WITH YOUR MEMORY.’

“I KNOW, RIGHT?”

If you’ve had even a casual relationship with television or movies in the last 15 years, you know Kaitlyn Dever, even if you don’t think you do. As a teenager, she got her start playing the gun-toting, pot-growing Loretta McCready on “Justified” and Tim Allen’s daughter on “Last Man Standing.” She then starred opposite Beanie Feldstein in the thrilling, funny 2019 comingof-age comedy “Booksmart,” now part of the teen movie canon, and then gutted viewers portraying a sexual assault survivor in “Unbelievable” and an opioid addict on “Dopesick.” Earlier this year, she shined as a cancer-faking Australian wellness influencer in the limited series “Apple Cider Vinegar.”

All that was a prelude to her turn as Abby Anderson on “The Last of Us,” playing the young woman who killed Joel (Pedro Pascal) to avenge her father’s death.

Dever appears in only three episodes of the show’s second season, and in two of them, she has just one scene. But if you measured an actor’s work by the power emanating from brief screen time, Dever would be the television season’s MVP. “I remember feeling like we were capitalizing on a quasi-secret that shouldn’t be a secret,” says “The Last of Us” co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin.

“It was the same feeling I had with Bella [Ramsey].

You can’t wait to watch the reaction when everyone finally sees it.”

The second season served as a curtain-raiser for both Dever and her character, ending in a reset that will now follow Abby through the warring factions and fungal-infected hordes of postapocalyptic Seattle, bringing her back to that moment when she meets Ramsey’s Ellie again.

Both Mazin and Neil Druckmann, co-creator of “The Last of Us” game, are practically salivating at the prospect of spotlighting Abby, as it will force viewers to reckon with their reactions to her killing Joel.

“Our challenge now is to make you question whether you hate Abby at all and maybe make you start to love her and then be confused,” Mazin says.

“Where are my loyalties? What is the concept of a hero? That requires an actor who can inspire those thoughts without sweating, and we have that in Kaitlyn.”

“That’s the experiment of the story,” Druckmann adds. “What if Abby isn’t so horrible? I’m thrilled to watch Kaitlyn bring her version of Abby to the screen because I think people can already see the force she brought to the show in such a short period of time.”

That Dever did all this amid the shattering grief of losing her mother, Kathy, to breast cancer is something that, 15 months later, she still can’t quite fathom.

Dever flew to Vancouver three days after her mom’s funeral. Her first day on set was the scene in which Abby kills Joel.

“When you have a moment like that with an actor, you are immediately bound to them,” Mazin says. “I would stand in front of a bullet for her.”

LIANE HENTSCHER HBO

Kaitlyn Dever in the Season 2 finale of "The Last of Us."

LIANE HENTSCHER HBO

SHAYAN ASGHARNIA For The Times

SHAYAN ASGHARNIA For The Times

BEN KING NETFLIX

Los Angeles, CA. May 30, 2025 – Kaitlyn Dever, star of "The Last of Us" and "Apple Cider Vinegar" in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Shayan Asgharnia/ For The Times)LO

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Dever stars as disgraced influencer Belle Gibson in Netflix’s “Apple Cider Vinegar.”

Times

BEN KING NETFLIX

‘WHEN I THINK OF STRENGTH, I THINK OF WHAT HAS BROUGHT YOU TO THIS MOMENT, HOW MUCH YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH AND HOW HAVE YOU GOTTEN HERE. IT’S MORE EMOTIONAL.’

For Dever, everything about that day is a blur, and when she finally watched the episode this year, it was like seeing it for the first time.

“Grief does a really interesting thing with your brain,” she says. “It messes with your memory.”

Truthfully, Dever, 28, didn’t want to leave home after her mother’s funeral. She didn’t think she could do it. It took her father to remind her how excited her mom was when she won the part of Abby. “I realized there’s no part of me that couldn’t not do this,” Dever says. “I had to do it for her.”

Saying that she “won” the role isn’t entirely accurate. When Mazin and Druckmann asked her to drive to casting director Mary Vernieu’s Santa Monica office in 2023, Dever went in thinking it was going to be an audition, much like the one she had with Druckmann years ago when there had been talk about turning the game into a movie.

Dever came in prepared to read. It turned out all she had to do was listen.

They were pitching her, detailing their plans for the series and Abby’s arc and asking her to trust them. She was so shocked that she spent most of the meeting just trying to hold it together until she could get back to her car, call her dad with the news and listen to him freak out.

“He couldn’t believe it,” Dever says. “He

had played the game and loved Abby, so this was huge.” She remembers everything about that day, including the “really big cookie” they gave her when she left. “I think only just now have I been able to process that it actually happened,” she says, smiling.

Dever stands 5 foot 3 and bears little resemblance to the tall, muscular version of Abby seen in “The Last of Us” game. Imposing, she is not. And that makes her work on “The Last of Us” all the more remarkable.

“Abby is so intimidating because of her strength,” Dever says. “And that comes from her dark and very sad past and how long she has been thinking about killing Joel. That’s the energy I was hoping to put across.”

Does Dever consider herself a strong person?

“Mmm-hmm, yeah,” she answers immediately.

“When I think of strength, I think of what has brought you to this moment, how much you’ve been through and how have you gotten here. It’s more emotional, what I consider strength.”

A few minutes later, though, we stumble upon her kryptonite. Dever has two younger sisters, Mady and Jane. She and Mady have been making music together for years and just released a six-song EP, “I Think We’re Lost,” recorded under the banner Devers. It’s beautiful folk pop featuring the kind of intuitive harmonies that only siblings can pull off. But, for a while at least, you’ll probably only hear it on streaming services and not in a concert setting. Dever hates performing in front of people.

“When you ask if I have strength, I don’t have strength in that regard,” she says. “It’s so scary. Maybe I’m working up to it. I don’t know. My sister is so confused by the nerves that I have. She doesn’t share that nerve thing with me. She’s like, ‘You literally perform in front of people for a living.’ But with acting, I’m playing a character. Onstage with music, there’s nothing for me to hide behind.”

But when it comes to songwriting, Dever doesn’t want to hide. The last several weeks, she has been pulling out her acoustic guitar and writing songs about her mom for an album she plans to dedicate to her.

She writes during her downtime making “Godzilla x Kong” — there’s a lot of downtime on a movie like that — and has come up with seven or eight songs, each playing off core memories. Most of them are upbeat and happy because that’s the kind of music that her mom listened to and loved.

“Everyone used to say that she was like a 17-year-old stuck in a 53-year-old body,” Dever says, laughing.

“She had a very youthful quality to her that was magnetic. She approached life with a lot of humor and just wanted to have a good time.”

“And I have to sometimes remember that,” Devers continues, “because as much as I love the challenge of doing serious stuff and find playing those types of characters therapeutic, there’s a place for a Godzilla movie, you know?”

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The Spotlight A Deeper Dive

Their cover is blown: Here is the dossier on 6 new spy dramas This season, agents are facing fresh complications in their line of work, from romantic entanglements to Big Tech executives gone mad with power

Story by Hugh Hart ■ Illustration by Paul Blow For The Times

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fever pitch this Emmy season, with spy thrillers that imagine intelligence agencies as puppet masters working in opposition to, or in cahoots with, megalomaniac billionaires.

Conspiracy theories that once might have seemed outlandish now resonate as entirely plausible, especially when dramatized by the formidable casts charged with bringing these stories to life.

Here’s a dossier summarizing this season’s notable espionage series and the stars who drive them.

‘THE AGENCY’

PARAMOUNT + WITH SHOWTIME HOOK Self-loathing spy. Michael Fassbender plays the icy CIA agent nicknamed “Martian.” Quietly traumatized after six years undercover in Ethiopia, he’s now back at London Station, lying to his bosses about an affair with former source/current lover Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith) and trying to trick the in-house psychologist into thinking that he’s fit for duty.

MISSION Ambush a Russian general in Ukraine to rescue undercover agent Coyote and, for field agent Danny (Saura Lightfoot-Leon), gather intel on Iranian nuclear weapons by posing as a scientist.

SPY LINE “I believe there is only one type of agent: the insane,” Martian says. “The CIA sends us out into the world to behave in entirely unhealthy, deviant, dangerous ways.”

FAKE INTERROGATION Danny is kidnapped, beaten and questioned by a man acting on instructions from Martian to make sure she won’t crack under pressure.

Danny passes the test and promptly sleeps with her interrogator, Edward (Elham Ehsas).

INFIGHTING Martian clashes over tactics with his superior (Jeffrey Wright), who tussles with his superior (Richard Gere) while their superior, the director of the CIA (Dominic West), periodically beams in from Washington, D.C., to cast doubt over the entire high-risk operation.

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‘BLACK DOVES’

NETFLIX HOOK The killers are besties. Keira Knightley is Helen, a London mother of two who steals state secrets from her U.K. defense minister husband. She and Ben Whishaw’s wry hit man Sam both work for the private Black Doves company run by steely Reed (Sarah Lancashire).

MISSION Helen seeks to avenge the murder of her secret lover, a government employee eliminated because he knew too much about the accidental murder of a Chinese diplomat.

TWIST Crime family matriarch Alex (Tracey Ullman) secretly works with MI5 to cover up the would-be scandal, and too bad for anyone who gets in their way.

SPY LINE “This is much bigger than we thought it was,” Sam tells Helen.

‘SPECIAL OPS: LIONESS’

PARAMOUNT+ HOOK Wonder women at war. Zoe Saldaña portrays Joe, leader of the CIA’s covert “Lioness” program for female assassins, who hates being told what to do even more than she regrets leaving her kids and husband behind for weeks at a time.

MISSION Infiltrate a Mexican cartel by training Army helicopter pilot Josie Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez) to spy on her money-laundering father.

WHOOPS Dozens die south of the border when Joe leads an off-the-books attack on human traffickers.

INFIGHTING For Joe’s testy overseers (Nicole Kidman, Michael Kelly and Morgan Freeman), everything’s an argument.

SPY LINE Joe yells at an intrusive bureaucrat, “I choose the assets. I choose the cover. I build the plan. And I run it. Me!”

‘THE MADNESS’

NETFLIX HOOK It’s not paranoid fantasy. It’s real life. Colman Domingo plays TV pundit Muncie, framed for the murder of a rightwing militant in the Pocono Mountains, who comes to realize he’s just a pawn in a game controlled by Big Tech moguls and their sociopath hit lady.

MISSION Prove he’s innocent and protect

his family.

SPY LINE FBI agent Khalil (Ennis Esmer) tells Muncie, “When you stir up the madness, sometimes the madness comes back and bites you.”

‘SLOW HORSES’

APPLE TV+ HOOK MI5’s island of misfit spies. Gary Oldman’s slovenly Jackson Lamb runs Slough House, where bickering loser agents compete to redeem their trashed reputations.

MISSION Catch the terrorists responsible for killing dozens of civilians in a London car bomb attack.

TWIST Agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) unravels the connection between himself and the CIA operative-turnedmercenary (Hugo Weaving) who’s raised a brood of psychopathic assassins.

INFIGHTING Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, as MI5’s “Second Desk” deputy director Diana Taverner, constantly undermines Lamb in order to bolster her own power.

SPY LINE Lamb says, “We’re all targets.

Just like old times.”

‘ZERO DAY’

NETFLIX HOOK Dementia at the top. Robert De Niro plays ex-president George Mullen, who comes out of retirement to head the Zero Day Commission while hiding his cognitive decline from wife Joan Allen, aide Jesse Plemons, ex-chief of staff Connie Britton and congresswoman daughter Lizzy Caplan.

MISSION Hunt down the perpetrators of a cyberattack that killed thousands of Americans, even if it means torturing suspects with “enhanced interrogation” techniques.

TWIST Big Tech billionaire Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffmann) executed the cyberattack — in collusion with congressional leaders and their CIA-developed code.

SPY LINE “You’re just going to grab people off the streets without warrants?” Mrs. Mullen asks her husband. “This is the greatest affront to civil liberties ever attempted.”

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How TV is tapping into the power of the ‘oner’ Creators from five series break down how they used continuous shots to crank up or slow down the action

Story by Whitney Friedlander

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T USED TO BE THAT A “ONE

shot,” or “oner,” was only associated with movies.

But the combination of prestige television and advanced technology has made it more common for the small screen to showcase the ballet of direction, cinematography, acting and more required to make it feel like an episode or scene is filmed in one continuous take.

The shootout gone awry in the first season of HBO’s “True Detective” garnered Emmys for cinematographer Adam Arkapaw and director Cary Joji Fukunaga and is still talked about in cinephile circles with a hushed reverence. The technique is also what kept the adrenaline flowing for “Review,” the Season 1 episode of Hulu’s “The Bear” that garnered Emmys for director Christopher Storer and the show’s sound mixing and editing team members.

This season, though, Emmy contenders are taking it up a notch. Oners are omnipresent, used for grueling fight scenes (HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and Disney+’s “Daredevil: Born Again”); trippy mind warps (Apple TV+’s “Severance”); documentary-style realism (Max’s “The Pitt”) and brutal examinations of crime and its repercussions (Netflix’s “Adoles-

→ Sarah Polley, left, Catherine O’Hara and Seth Rogen in “The Studio.”

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cence” and “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”). In comedies, Apple TV+’s “The Studio” is filled with oners, including an episode-length example about a film production’s quest to achieve a perfect one shot at sunset. (The episode is, of course, called “The Oner.”)

“We call it a dance with the actors,” “The Pitt’s” director of photography, Johanna Coelho, says of the series’ immersive style.

“We have two camera operators, and they both really learn to know how the actors move. But the actors learn to see how they move with the camera.”

The series’ camera crew is in the actors’ faces so much that they have to wear medical scrubs, lest they get caught in a background shot.

The increasing use of oners also reflects rapid technological transformation. “Adolescence” director Philip Barantini says he would have struggled to film his four-part limited series in episode-length one shots as recently as three years ago. The crew shot with a Ronin 4D, an affordable and lightweight camera that could easily be handed to different operators. (Director of photography Matt Lewis became such a fan that he bought one for himself.)

The key to using the oner successfully — and avoiding accusations of gimmickry

— is to ensure the style doesn’t outshine the story, says Barantini, who also used the technique for his restaurant drama “Boiling Point.”

Indeed, though the oner is frequently associated with a fast pace, it also can slow things down, making it hard for audiences to look away. For instance, “The Hurt Man,” the fifth episode of “Monsters,” is the shortest of the season at just 36 minutes. But director Michael Uppendahl uses that entire time to zoom methodically in on actor Cooper Koch’s Erik Menendez as he details horrifying stories about his family.

Working with showrunners Ian Brennan, who wrote the episode, and Ryan Murphy, as well as cinematographer Jason McCormick, Uppendahl brought in a large crane that could push the camera in so slowly that audiences wouldn’t immediately notice. It also could tilt the camera and recalibrate if speed or sound were off.

“It does take a certain kind of actor to be able to maintain that kind of stillness without constricting performance,” Uppendahl says of Koch, adding, “He’s a young performer, and I didn’t know if he was able to do that.”

They got the scene in 10 takes.

“The Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, who also co-directed every episode with series star Seth Rogen, notes the technique dictates that the plot can follow only a single storyline. Once they decided to film episodes this way, he says, “We had to rewrite every single scene of every single episode to accommodate it.

“We knew we were going to film it that way before we wrote it,” Goldberg explains. “But then once we hit the ground on production and actually looked at the scripts, we realized that we had to make the jokes end when they leave a room and … if there’s someone upstairs and downstairs yelling at each other, are we actually gonna be able to do that?”

A filming error also means a much bigger scene reset than a normal shot.

“Daredevil” director Aaron Moorhead has what he calls the Filmmaker’s Prayer: “May the camera, the script and the actors all want to do the same thing. Amen.”

Moorhead and directing partner Justin Benson filmed three episodes of the action drama’s first season, including the premiere episode, which features a oner of a fight scene down a narrow hallway. This helped establish the camera’s language for the show and how it would move. He says it’s “not exactly harder” to film a oner; “it’s just a very different skill set.”

“Almost every time we’ve ever tried a oner it succeeds,” Moorhead says, adding, “The thing that’s the most challenging about it is you have to commit to everything.”

A P P LE TV +

The Spotlight Behind the Scenes

The Spotlight Flashback

These reboots won over Emmy voters Revivals typically take a backseat to new shows during awards season. But these series earned plaudits from the TV Academy on their second go-round

Story by Randee Dawn

EVERY YEAR, EMMY PROGNOSTICATORS WEIGH THE CHANCES OF TV’S NEW-

comers. But what about newcomers that are also old-timers, like CBS’ “Matlock” reboot with Kathy Bates? ¶ When it comes to awards season, reboots aren’t usually a hot commodity. Here we look back on six rethinks that bucked the trend.

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EMMY WINS: 18 With 26 nominations and an astounding 18 wins, the premiere season of “Shō gun” is the first Japanese-language series to take home an Emmy for drama series. In addition to the top prize, the adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 historical novel won awards for stars Hiroyuki Sanada (lead actor, drama) and Anna Sawai (lead actress, drama) plus a raft of below-the-line Emmys. The original miniseries’ take on Clavell’s story of colonialism and war in medieval Japan didn’t do so badly, either — in 1980 it scored 14 nominations and won three Primetime Emmys, including one for limited series.

EMMY WINS: 9 “Westworld” stands out on this list because it reimagines a feature film, not an earlier TV series — in this case, the 1973 movie written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner.

The film scored no top-line awards or nominations, but the HBO reboot, which premiered in 2016, landed 54 Emmy nominations and nine wins across its fourseason run, including a 2018 trophy for Thandiwe Newton (lead actress, drama) for her performance as the series’ cunning madam, Maeve Millay.

KURT ISWARIENKO FX; N E TFLIX; JOHN JOH NS ON HBO; A LI GOLDSTE IN NETFL IX; CAROLE SE GAL SCI-FI CH A N N E L; R O B E R T T RAC HTE NB E RG AB C

‘SHŌ GUN’ (2024-PRESENT)

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‘QUEER EYE’ (2018-PRESENT)

EMMY WINS: 11 The fixer-upper series featuring five gay men zhuzhing up the lives of more staid straights was a phenomenon when it originally aired between 2003 and 2007 but was comparatively overlooked by the Emmys, picking up a win for reality program in 2004 plus three other nominations. Meanwhile, Netflix’s reboot — featuring makeovers of more than just straight guys, and a less snarky sensibility — has earned 11 Emmys to date, including six wins for structured reality program (2018, 2019-23).

‘WESTWORLD’ (2016-22)

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2

‘BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’ (2004-09)

EMMY WINS: 3 In the decades between the original 1978-79 “Battlestar” and the full-throttle reboot, science-fiction storytelling on the small screen advanced at lightspeed, which may have helped the latter last far longer than the original. The story of human refugees fleeing space colonies destroyed by Cylon robots (who were now on their tail) earned the original series three nominations and two Emmy wins in below-the line categories. The reboot ended up with three Emmy wins of its own from 19 nominations, though all the wins were for special effects and sound editing. (A 2003 backdoor pilot became a three-hour miniseries and also earned three Emmy nominations.)

6

‘THE CONNERS’ (2018-25)

3

4

‘ONE DAY AT A TIME’ (2017-20)

EMMY WINS: 3 The story of a single mom raising her growing daughters earned three nominations during its original run from 1975 to 1984, including one in 1982 for star Bonnie Franklin (lead actress, comedy); director Alan Rafkin and supporting actor Pat Harrington won. The Netflix reboot, which recast the Romanos as the Cuban American Alvarez family and shifted the action from Indianapolis to L.A., was nominated for each of its four seasons and won two, as well as a special Television Academy Honor.

5

4 ALI GOLDSTEI N N E TF L I X

5

R O BE R T T R A CH T E N B E R G A B C

6

EMMY WINS: 1 Let’s call this one an unplanned reboot. After ABC canceled its 2018 “Roseanne” revival due to star Roseanne Barr’s public flameout, the quick-thinking network teed up “The Conners,” which follows the titular family after its matriarch’s untimely death. Falling somewhere between a traditional revival and a full-on reboot, “The Conners” hasn’t matched the original “Roseanne’s” Emmy haul, which included 25 nominations and four wins (three for Laurie Metcalf and one for Barr). But the series, which recently concluded its own seven-season run, has performed solidly with voters, earning six nominations and one win in 2021 for editing in a comedy series.

33

The Spotlight Gold Standard

‘Mountainhead’ is a lock for an Emmy nod. But its stars have an uphill climb

EARLY ON IN “MOUNTAINHEAD,” TECH BRO AND

Elon Musk stand-in Venis Parish (Cory Michael Smith) uses film history to put the glitches of his company’s latest AI rollout into perspective. ¶ “The first time people saw a movie, everybody ran screaming because they thought they were gonna get hit by a train,” Venis relates, shouting out the Lumiere brothers’ 1895 film, “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station.” “The answer to that was not stop the movies. The answer was: Show more movies. We’re gonna show users as much s— as possible, until everyone realizes nothing’s that f— serious. Nothing means anything, and everything’s funny and cool.” ¶ In the meantime, though, Venis’ social media platform has given users the tools to create deepfakes so realistic they can’t be identified as bogus. Immediately, people all over the world are uploading videos of their enemies committing atrocities, inflaming centuries-old animosities. Reality has collapsed and, with it, global stability.

→ Cory Michael Smith, left, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman in “Mountainhead.”

Illustration by Stephanie Jones

34

Glenn Whipp Columnist

But for “Mountainhead’s” quartet of tech magnates, played by Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman, everything is just fine. As venture capitalist Randall Garrett (Carell) notes, “We have plenty of calories stockpiled.

Western countries have strategic commodity reserves, canola oil, lard, frozen orange juice.”

Later, Randall asks: “Are we the Bolsheviks of a new techno world order that starts tonight?”

“Mountainhead,” from “Succesion” showrunner Jesse Armstrong, is in many ways scarier than the zombie apocalypse of “The Last of Us” because it feels like its premise is lurking right around the corner.

Armstrong came up with the idea for the two-hour movie in November, after immersing himself in podcasts and books about Silicon Valley. He shot it in March, edited it in April and delivered it in May. It captures the DOGE era, specifically in the casual cruelty expressed by its entitled characters.

“Do you believe in other people?” Venis asks Randall. “Eight billion people as real as us?” Randall’s reply: “Well, obviously not.”

“Mountainhead” aspires more directly to comedy, but because we don’t have a history with these four deplorable men, it’s often difficult to find the humor. “Like ‘Fountainhead’ Mountainhead?” Youssef jokes to Schwartzman about the estate’s title. “Was your interior decorator Ayn Bland?” There’s a procession of put-downs like that. When they’re not roasting each other, they’re trying to boost their own agendas — in the case of the cancer-stricken Randall, it’s the quest to live forever as a disembodied consciousness.

For all its Shakespearean drama, “Succession” was wildly entertaining, more of a comedy than, yes, “The Bear.” Kendall Roy performing the rap “L to the OG” at a party honoring his father’s

PHOTOS FROM HBO; PORTRAIT ILL U S T R A T I ON B Y KAGA N MCLEOD FOR THE TIMES

While the HBO film’s four leads are convincing as self-important tech oligarchs, having to share a category with limited series may hurt their chances

PHOTOS FROM HBO; PORTRAIT ILLU STRATION BY KAGAN MCLEOD FOR THE TIMES

← Recent HBO Emmy contenders for TV movie, clockwise from bottom left: “Oslo,” “Reality,” “Mountainhead,” “The Survivor” and “The Great Lillian Hall.”

half-century running Waystar Royco will be the funniest two minutes of television probably forever. But half the fun came from the characters’ reactions to this transcendent moment of cringe. We were deeply invested in this world.

For all their money and power, the “Mountainhead” moguls are, like the Roy children in “Succession,” not serious people. But beyond that, “Mountainhead” doesn’t have much of anything novel to say about its subjects. As good as Smith is at channeling Musk’s alien, empathy-deficient otherness, you can come away with the same level of insight — and entertainment — by spending a few minutes watching Mike Myers on “Saturday Night Live.” I don’t need to watch a movie to know that a guy sitting on a gold toilet isn’t prioritizing anyone’s interests but his own.

“Mountainhead” arrived on the last day of 2024-25 Emmy eligibility, less by design than from necessity. The paint’s still wet on this film. But this does mark the

third straight season that HBO has dropped a TV movie right before the deadline. Last year, it was “The Great Lillian Hall,” starring Jessica Lange as fading Broadway legend. Two years ago, it was the excellent whistleblower thriller “Reality,” featuring a star turn from Sydney Sweeney. Both movies were blanked at the Emmys, though Kathy Bates did manage a Screen Actors Guild Awards nod for “Lillian Hall.”

Did the movies land too late for enough people see them? Perhaps. The late arrival time should mean they’d be fresh in voters’ minds when they fill out their ballots.

But you have to be aware of them for that to happen.

Awareness shouldn’t be an issue with “Mountainhead.” Enough people will want to watch the new offering from the creator of “Succession,” and there’s not much else on television vying for attention right now. “Mountainhead” should score a nomination for television movie, even with

the category being stronger than usual this year with audience favorites “Rebel Ridge,” the latest “Bridget Jones” movie and Scott Derrickson’s enjoyable, genrebending “The Gorge” competing.

But actors in these TV movies are at a competitive disadvantage as the Emmys lump them together with their counterparts in limited series, performers who are onscreen for a much longer time. This decade, only two TV movie actors have been nominated — Hugh Jackman (“Bad Education”) and Daniel Radcliffe (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”). The lead actress category, meanwhile, has been completely dominated by limited series.

Not that there are any women starring in “Mountainhead” because ... tech bros.

As for the men, Carell, Schwartzman, Smith and Youssef are very good at conveying delusional arrogance. I despised each and every one of their characters. If hate-voting were a thing, they’d all be nominated.

latimes.com/theenvelope

35

The Spotlight On Writing

An essay by Konrad Kay and Mickey Down on writing ‘Industry’ as first-time creators and finding the show’s soul

BILL GOLDMAN HAS A WELL-WORN LINE

Photograph by Tom Jamieson For The Times

36

about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” He meant that nobody involved in the making of a movie knows whether it’s going to work. As first-time creators of a TV show for HBO, we made good on Bill’s words in the most literal sense: We knew nothing.

When we first pitched the show to Casey Bloys and the creative team at HBO, we said it would be “glacially slow, with no big bang theory of dramatics.” Sit in the building that originated “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” and you feel a certain pressure to intellectualize your ideas, to overstress your originality. We should have just said, “Sexy graduate ‘Hunger Games’ on a trading floor.” But we were determined to tell them that the show was more than this, that it had a soul. This was naive. We knew nothing because at that point there was nothing. We could only understand the show by making it.

So many choices that seem hardcoded into the show’s DNA are accidents or evolutions of choices totally out of our control. We watch early cuts of episodes and worry. The show is baggy, dour and a little self-serious. We hack, nip, tuck. It becomes kinetic and engaging —with the

latimes.com/theenvelope

breakneck pace that became its hallmark.

Luckily, we cast well — there was something undeniable about the young actors’ freshness and charisma. They made you lean in. Ken Leung made you lean in further. Eric (Leung) and Harper (Myha’la) share a scene and something happens — we don’t prepare for it, but we sense something: the touch-paper being lit. Next time we redraft, we lean into that feeling — a yearning — and it will sit underneath the words of everything we write for them going forward. Is that the show’s soul? We never could have communicated it in a pitch. We knew nothing.

Now we know something.

The scenes feel a little inert. How to solve that? We hire Nathan Micay. He overlays them with his unique sound. It’s a techno-forward, Michael Mann-coded balm for scenes that need juice. These scenes now seem to swell. Wait: There’s romance in this universe after all. Why don’t we write into that? What if the characters who people reductively call monsters actually love each other but are not incentivized to express it? Have we fallen into saying something about capitalism? Maybe we found another piece of the show’s soul.

We feel the show’s sound design could

be more immersive. We realize the show is too dry. We solve both problems at once.

We decide that background chatter could be an avenue for comedy. We write a secondary ADR [automated dialogue replacement] script and lay it so it falls between lines of featured dialogue. We find Rishi’s voice. We road test it in the background before pushing Sagar [Radia] and the character forward in Season 3. The arc on the writers’ room wall gives you an illusion of control and intention, but the real road is unknowable. Where you land is an act of faith.

We write a two-dimensional finance bro called Robert. He’s a cartoon who loves cocaine and thinks with his d—. We cast Harry Lawtey, who plays him with a boyish, broken quality. The Robert we initially wrote is dead. The actor — his sensitivity and skill — rewrites the story. How quickly can Robert leave and at what cost to himself? People tell us they think this version of Robert, the one we didn’t envisage and don’t fully control, is the show’s soul. Maybe we are getting somewhere.

The making of “Industry” over four seasons is a synthesis of many things. Our own development as creators: trying to be as impartial and brutal as we can, leaning into what we feel worked and doing away with what we think didn’t. The hive-mind of our writers’ room and cast: a back-andforth that writes and overwrites the characters and their choices, enriching the psychological stock of the soup. The brilliant minds of our department heads, who use all their ingenuity to make a show that operates on a fraction of the budget of most streaming-era shows look like an HBO Sunday night event. Our producers at Bad Wolf and collaborators at HBO, who gave the series time and space to grow, to find an audience and find a soul.

Bad Wolf’s CEO Jane Tranter, who always called “Industry” “the little show that could.” Somehow, we continue to prove her right.

We are so buried in the moment that we know we can never fully grasp the totality of the work. We will never see it with fresh eyes. We know the contours of every turn and every compromise, and because we never experience it cold, there is a very real sense that ultimately its meaning and its soul has nothing to do with us. It is its own thing, experienced by you.

It’s a truism that working in TV is a collaboration, but the definition is usually limited to a collaboration between people, rather than between the people and the show itself — a living organism that will guide you as to how it wants to be written.

Our job is to be alive to transcribe its lessons, metabolize them through our process and put them onscreen. We still know nothing, but now we have our faith.

Things will be revealed in the making.

LA TIMES STUDIOS

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

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Who Keeps the Lights On and the Cameras Rolling?

W

hile the show business spotlight shines brightest for the on-camera product, it’s easy to overlook the professionals working tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all fiscally, legally and logistically possible. The industry routinely makes headlines with its stars, red carpet premieres and award ceremonies, but it’s the quiet force of trusted advisors off-camera – the lawyers, accountants, business managers, wealth advisors and other trusted experts – who ensure that the show will go on smoothly and successfully.

With recent challenges ranging from global trade conflict, emerging tariffs, supply chain complications, emerging tech innovations and constantly evolving protocols, it is these unsung heroes who handle the complex realities of the business. They are the ones fielding the urgent calls in the middle of the night, making sure payments clear, rights are secured and crises are averted.

Without them, projects could falter before they ever make it to an audience.

LA Times Studios is excited to present this section profiling uniquely talented visionaries in the entertainment industry. The trusted advisors listed alphabetically below have demonstrated exceptional skills and achievements across the full spectrum of responsibility, exemplary guidance and contributions to the Southern Californian entertainment business community at large. It’s time they take a well-earned and overdue bow.

Belva ANAKWENZE

Addie ALLISON

First Entertainment Credit Union

SVP & Chief Experience Officer

Addie Allison is the senior vice president and chief experience officer at First Entertainment Credit Union, where she has led experience strategy and innovation since 2014. With more than 30 years in the credit union industry, she directed the disbursement of over $1 million per month in emergency relief during the 2023 Hollywood strikes, ensuring financial support for entertainment professionals. Allison spearheaded the credit union’s digital transformation, launching automated platforms that streamlined member transactions and improved service efficiency. Under her leadership, First Entertainment strengthened its financial infrastructure and updated key operational policies. The credit union serves as a primary financial partner to creators in the entertainment industry and Allison’s efforts have focused on tailoring services to meet their unique needs.

Abacus Financial Business Management

Entertainment Business Manager

Belva Anakwenze, principal of Abacus Financial Business Management, serves as a trusted advisor to creatives, entertainers and tech companies across Los Angeles.

With 24 years in the industry, she manages a growing roster of high-profile clients, including Jay Ellis and Kevin Frazier, and oversees operations at her firm, which continues to expand in both scale and staff. She partnered with Patreon to launch and produce The Earn Up, a financial YouTube series tailored to creators. Anakwenze was selected to speak at SXSW 2024 on “Wealth Creation for Creatives” and has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety for her industry leadership. Prior to launching her firm, she had also held financial roles at Disney and the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.

Tom ARA

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP | Partner

Tom Ara is a distinguished partner in the U.S. Private Equity Group at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, specializing in entertainment, sports and media transactions. With 26 years of experience, he leads a top-rated legal practice, previously serving as global co-chair at DLA Piper. Ara advises a diverse clientele, including private equity firms and global entertainment companies, on complex M&A, financing and strategic deals, handling multi-billion-dollar transactions.

Recognized by Forbes, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, Ara is a respected leader in the industry. He also contributes to industry boards and initiatives, including a fellowship for Black creators in partnership with Netflix. Ara is based in Los Angeles and is committed to expanding Weil’s footprint in the ESM sector.

Produced by LA Times Studios, does not involve L.A. Times editorial staff.

Bennett BIGMAN

Russ August & Kabat

Partner

Bennett Andrew Bigman is a renowned partner and entertainment litigator at Russ August & Kabat.

He is a veteran litigator with over 40 years of experience, currently practicing at his firm for the past seven years.

Bigman began his career at Sidley & Austin, where he worked alongside renowned copyright scholar Mel Nimmer and carved out a niche in entertainment and advertising litigation. He later developed a leading practice in profit participation disputes, representing A-list talent in high-stakes underpayment cases linked to vertical integration. He has handled IP and audit matters for properties such as “Survivor,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Suits,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “La La Land.” Bigman’s practice also includes securing copyright reversions for legacy artists and heirs, including “This Is Spinal Tap” and Carl Sagan’s estate.

Tiffany Boyle is president of packaging and sales at Ramo Law PC, where she has led strategic film financing and distribution efforts for the past 15 of her 18 years in the industry. In 2024, she executive produced “Oh, Canada,” directed by Paul Schrader and starring Richard Gere and Uma Thurman, guiding it through financing, festival premieres and a Kino Lorber distribution deal. Under Vested Interest, the production company she co-founded, Boyle also executive produced Electra, Walden, Booger and Dead Shot, with upcoming projects including “Dead Man’s Wire,” directed by Gus Van Sant, and a fertility-focused documentary by Oscar-winner Louie Psihoyos.

She regularly leads panels at SXSW and mentors filmmakers through groups like Sundance Collab and Women in Film.

Tiffany BOYLE

Ramo Law PC

President of Packaging and Sales

LATIMES.COM/B2B/ENTERTAINMENT 37

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

William BRIGGS II Venable LLP

Partner

William Briggs II is a partner at Venable LLP and a seasoned trial la w yer w i t h 24 years of experience representing top talent in film, television, music and sports. At the firm for 12 years, he has handled intellectual property disputes, contract litigation, rights of publicity and First Amendment matters. Briggs’ recent work includes representing clients such as Snoop Dogg in the Bored Ape NFT lawsuit, DaBaby in a personal injury case and members of Migos in multiple civil disputes, including a partial summary judgment victory. In addition to his legal practice, he serves as president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, overseeing LAPD operations and an $11.8-billion budget and is also a frequent speaker on policing and civic engagement.

LA TIMES STUDIOS

As partner and leader of Manatt Entertainment, Jordan Bromley has spent 19 years building one of the nation’s most respected entertainment practices, negotiating over $3 billion in transactions in the past year alone. He represents top talent including Diplo, Jack White, the Eagles and ODESZA across music, film, sports and gaming.

Bromley played a central role in securing SAG-AFTRA’s AI agreement with major record labels and advocated for copyright termination rights under the Music Modernization Act. He led the development of Manatt’s streaming royalty calculator, a widely cited tool for creator compensation transparency. In 2025, he oversaw pro bono counsel for FireAid LA’s benefit concert. A board member of the Music Artists Coalition, Bromley continues to champion legislative reforms, creators’ rights and fair pay across the evolving entertainment landscape.

Jordan BROMLEY Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Partner & Leader of Manatt Entertainment

Matthew BURKE Singer Burke Zimmer & Kogan, LLP | Managing Partner

As managing partner of Singer Burke Zimmer & Kogan, LLP, Matthew Burke has led the firm for 35 of his 41 years in the financial industry, transforming it into a leader in holistic financial management for top content creators, showrunners and media executives. Under his leadership, the firm expanded its integrated offerings – including tax, accounting, business management and investment services through SB Capital Management Inc. Burke previously held roles at Ernst & Young and a national real estate syndication firm before joining Singer Burke. Known for his forward-thinking approach, he recently prioritized cybersecurity and tech-enabled planning tools to safeguard clients amid high-profile breaches. He serves on the board of TOArts and has raised over $70,000 for pancreatic cancer research.

Cheryl A. CALHOUN CBIZ, Inc. | Managing Director

As managing director at CBIZ, Inc., Cheryl A. Calhoun brings over 40 years of experience in public accounting, including 30 with the firm following its acquisition of Parks, Palmer, Turner & Yemenidjian. After beginning her career in audit with a Big Eight firm, she transitioned to tax and business management, ultimately specializing in high-net-worth individuals and entertainment-related businesses. Calhoun now co-leads CBIZ’s Los Angeles family office group and helped develop national best practices for the firm’s family office services. Her client portfolio includes Wildcard Media and Scout Productions, with services ranging from tax structuring and deal negotiation to estate planning and financial reporting.

She holds key leadership roles on the boards of the American Lung Association, Dress for Success and the Women’s Founders Network.

Lisa CALLIF Donaldson Callif Perez LLP | Partner

Lisa Callif, founding partner of Donaldson Callif Perez LLP, has built a 24-year career representing independent production companies across all aspects of legal and business affairs in both documentary and scripted entertainment. In the past year, she expanded her scripted practice, advising on financing, distribution and clearance for projects like Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” and “Blue Moon” and AGC Studios’ “Giant.” Callif has also counseled Pressman Films on About a Hero, a project largely created using AI, reflecting her growing focus on AI and copyright law. Her clearance work spans major clients, including the Safdie Brothers’ Elara, Artists Equity, XTR and Edgeline Films and has handled high-profile projects such as “They Call Me Magic” for Apple, “Daughters” for Netflix and “Bad Actor” for Tribeca.

Christopher CHATHAM Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP | Partner

Christopher Chatham, partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, has built a 19-year career representing leading talent and media companies, structuring more than $10 billion in entertainment deals across digital, television and streaming platforms. His clients produce over 1,000 hours of TV annually, run platforms reaching 300 million users per month and generate billions of views globally. Chatham represents Logan Paul in his ventures with “Paul American,” PRIME energy drink and the Impaulsive podcast and also counsels top creators like Alan Chikin Chow, Dhar Mann and Chris Williamson. He advised Dr. Phil McGraw on launching Merit Street Media, represented Chris Harrison in his return to television and has also guided Stage 29’s true-crime docuseries “American Murder: Gabby Petito” to Netflix.

38 LATIMES.COM/B2B/ENTERTAINMENT

Shaun CLARK Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Partner

Shaun Clark, partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, has spent 29 years structuring complex deals at the crossroads of entertainment, branding and technology. Representing clients such as Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and QVC, he advises on film, TV, gaming and digital content production. Clark also advises clients on licensing, sponsorships and rights of publicity. He recently led Sony’s acquisition of Alamo Drafthouse, represented Lionsgate in its $500-million purchase of eOne from Hasbro and advised Creative Wealth Media in acquiring Bron Studios’ assets.

He has also structured endorsement and equity deals for brands tied to Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and Bethenny Frankel, and his work spans stadium naming rights, AI content issues and biopic projects such as Apple TV+’s “Tetris.”

JoAnne Colonna, partner at Linden Entertainment, has spent 39 years managing and producing for some of the most acclaimed figures in film, television and stage. Joining the firm in 2023, she continues to represent longtime clients including Brendan Fraser, Forest Whitaker, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Andy Garcia, Anna Paquin, Norman Reedus and Eva Longoria – guiding their careers across acting, directing, producing and brand ventures. Colonna began her career as the youngest agent in New York City before holding senior roles at Paradigm, ICM, AMG, The Firm and Brillstein.

She is also a partner in bigbaldhead, a production company with Norman Reedus, developing multiple projects under an AMC Studios overall deal. Her producing credits include “Ringer” on The CW and the upcoming “Undone By Blood” series.

JoAnne COLONNA Linden Entertainment

Partner

Produced by LA Times Studios, does not involve L.A. Times editorial staff.

LA TIMES STUDIOS

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

Jackie COMBS Blank Rome LLP | Partner,

Matrimonial & Family Law

Jackie Combs, partner at Blank Rome LLP’s California matrimonial & family law practice, has built a 13-year career representing high-profile clients in complex and often high-conflict family law matters. In her six years with the firm, she has handled custody, dissolution and domestic violence cases for entertainment industry figures, professional athletes and business executives.

Combs’ recent matters include securing sole custody for a prominent director, navigating #MeToo-related claims in divorces involving public personalities and obtaining a five-year restraining order for a tech executive. Outside of her practice, she volunteers with Bet Tzedek and the Los Angeles Family Law Court and is active in the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law and the Los Angeles Bar Association.

Duncan CRABTREE-IRELAND Stephanie Connor Arkof, wealth management partner at SB Capital Management, Inc., has spent 21 years guiding high-networth individuals – particularly in the entertainment industry – through personalized investment and estate planning strategies. At a firm managing over $1.23 billion in assets, she translates complex financial scenarios into clear, actionable plans rooted in each client’s goals and values. With a background in accounting and a degree in business economics from UCLA, Arkof serves as a key link between SB Capital and its sister CPA firm, Singer Burke Zimmer & Kogan LLP. Her client relationships often extend beyond finance, including serving as executor and trustee. She also supports nonprofits such as Hope the Mission and Imagine LA, applying her compassion and insight to both community service and financial leadership.

Stephanie CONNOR ARKOF SB Capital Management, Inc.

Wealth Management Partner

SAG-AFTRA | National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, has led the union representing over 160,000 performers across film, television, music and video games for the past 24 years. A key architect of the 2012 SAG-AFTRA merger, he has since overseen major contract negotiations, including the historic 2023 strike and current video game performer strike, both centered on artificial intelligence protections. Under his leadership, the union secured landmark AI legislation in California and launched innovative agreements such as the Dynamic AI Audio Commercials Waiver. Crabtree-Ireland is a leading national voice on AI and labor, speaking at CES, the U.S. Senate and the World Economic Forum, as well as serving on multiple entertainment and labor boards, including SoundExchange and the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

Sandra CRAWSHAW-SPARKS Proskauer Rose LLP

Partner, Chair, Entertainment, Copyright & Media Practice Group

Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP and chair of the entertainment, copyright & media practice group, has spent 37 years representing some of the most iconic figures in music and media. With 26 years at the firm, she leads high-stakes litigation and pre-trial resolution efforts on copyright, licensing, publicity and trademark matters. Recent cases include defending Madonna and Live Nation in multiple class actions, recovering over $66 million for Sony Music Entertainment in copyright disputes and winning a summary judgment in a case involving Raising Malawi. Named a Billboard Top Music Lawyer annually since 2021, Crawshaw-Sparks was also recognized as Copyright Lawyer of the Year by Euromoney in 2022 and a 2024 Woman of Influence by LABJ.

Trusted Advisors to the Entertainment Industry For over 40 years, we have been a go-to financial advisor for LA’s entertainment industry—trusted by producers, directors, writers, and post-production pros.

Jim Parks

Managing Director

Cheryl Calhoun

Managing Director

We bring strategy to creativity, offering tailored solutions in: • Tax Planning • Business Management • Family Office Services

Built on industry insight and powered by technology, we help entertainment professionals turn complex challenges into smart opportunities.

CBIZ. Insights that Impact.

CBIZ is a consulting, tax and financial services provider that works closely with CBIZ CPAs P.C., an independent CPA firm that provides audit, review and other attest services. © Copyright 2025. CBIZ, Inc. NYSE Listed: CBZ. All rights reserved

Accounting | Tax | Advisory | Benefits | Insurance

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Guillaume DE CHALENDAR Banc of California

EVP, Head of Media & Entertainment Banking

Guillaume de Chalendar, executive vice president and head of media and entertainment banking at Banc of California, has redefined the bank’s entertainment strategy since joining in 2022. Under his leadership, the division has expanded from U.S.-focused film financing into a global, full-service operation with clients across Canada, Australia and the U.K. The bank now offers credit lines up to $200 million and loans in over 30 currencies, serving sectors including film, TV, music rights and live events.

With nearly 30 years of experience, from an entertainment law firm in Paris to senior finance roles in London and Los Angeles, de Chalendar previously launched and led Bank Leumi’s media finance practice and held leadership roles at Ingenious Media and Alvarium Investments.

Scott EDEL Dina Doll, co-founder of Doll Amir & Eley LLP and a leading legal analyst, has built a national reputation through her commentary on high-profile trials and political cases. As the official legal analyst for the Law & Crime Network and a frequent contributor to MeidasTouch, she offers expert analysis across major platforms including CNN, NewsNation, HLN and TYT. Doll’s legal insights – featured in the Netflix documentary “Depp v. Heard” – span issues from the George Floyd and Kyle Rittenhouse trials to Supreme Court rulings on abortion and presidential authority. In addition to her legal work, she is active in civic engagement, serving as a delegate to the California Democratic Party and a city commissioner in Manhattan Beach.

Dina DOLL Doll Amir & Eley LLP

Co-Founder; Legal Analyst

Loeb & Loeb LLP | Chair, Entertainment

With 35 years of experience and a reputation as a business-first negotiator, Scott Edel serves as chair of Loeb & Loeb’s entertainment group, where he leads major transactions at the intersection of Hollywood and finance. Widely regarded as a “dealmaker,” he recently handled key deals for Alcon Entertainment (“Wonka,” “Blade Runner 2099,” “Garfield”), Nintendo (The Legend of Zelda) and Games Workshop (Warhammer with Amazon Studios). Edel also represents Artists Equity – founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon – on its film slate, including “Small Things Like These.” His practice spans film, television, gaming and music, advising clients like Supercell, Fox Alternative Studios (“The Masked Singer”) and composers including Bear McCreary and Christophe Beck.

David C. EISMAN Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP | Partner

David Eisman is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he leads the firm’s global media and entertainment group and the Los Angeles corporate group.

With over three decades of experience, he represents leading studios, talent agencies, music labels, gaming companies and high-profile entertainers in transformative transactions. In 2024, Eisman advised United Talent Agency on its cross-border acquisition of European soccer agency ROOF and Downtown Music Group on its pending $775-million sale to Virgin Music Group. A frequent honoree on The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyers list and Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report, he is recognized by Chambers USA and Lawdragon among the top entertainment attorneys globally.

Alan EPSTEIN Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Partner, Chair of Entertainment Transactions Practice

Alan Epstein is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and chair of the firm’s entertainment transactions practice, where he advises top-tier clients across media, sports and entertainment. With over 30 years of experience, he has led landmark deals such as Ryan Reynolds’ $1.35 billion Mint Mobile sale to T-Mobile and Brillstein Entertainment’s acquisition by Wasserman Media Group. Epstein recently advised on Create Music Group’s $165-million investment, Eva Longoria’s expansion through Hyphenate Media and Matthew McConaughey’s launch of Pantalones Organic Tequila. He also serves on the boards of the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, UCLA’s Ziffren Institute and the Alliance for Children’s Rights and is a member of YPO Angeleno Gold.

Miles FELDMAN Raines Feldman Littrell LLP | Founding Partner

Miles Feldman is a founding partner of Raines Feldman Littrell LLP and a top-tier trial lawyer with over 30 years of experience in high-stakes litigation and arbitration. Known for representing major players in media, tech and entertainment – including TikTok, United Talent Agency, Fear of God and Killer Mike – he has driven landmark cases involving California’s seven-year rule, fair use and the Talent Agency Act. Feldman recently represented Range Media in its dispute with CAA and is lead counsel in high-profile litigation concerning the 2024 Grammys and a $710-million fraud involving 1inMM Capital.

Recognized by Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America and the Los Angeles Business Journal, he is also active in pro bono work for organizations like the Survivor Justice Center and CISLA.

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Alexander (Sasha) FRID Miller Barondess, LLP

Partner

Sasha Frid is a founding par tner at Miller Barondess, LLP and head of the firm’s entertainment practice, widely regarded as a top trial lawyer for major figures in music and media. With over two decades of experience, he has delivered high-stakes wins for clients like Mötley Crüe, Logic and Smokey Robinson in matters ranging from copyright and breach of contract to royalty disputes. Frid’s recent work includes defending Mötley Crüe in litigation with former bandmate Mick Mars, resolving royalty claims for Bush’s Gavin Rossdale and representing Warner Records in a copyright suit over rapper Phora’s debut album. A member of the Recording Academy® and GRAMMY voter, he is also active in charitable work, supporting cancer research and previously serving on the board of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.

Patricia Glaser, partner and chair of the litigation department at Glaser Weil, is widely regarded as one of the nation’s top business trial lawyers, with a career spanning over five decades. Known for her strategic brilliance and fierce advocacy, she represents Fortune 500 companies, major studios and high-profile individuals.

Her recent cases include representing Channing Tatum, Bill Nye, Jeff Zucker and The Lemieux Group, among others. Glaser also represented producer Karyn McCarthy in her lawsuit against Lucasfilm and songwriter Ammo in a contract dispute. Under her leadership, Glaser Weil has developed one of the most respected litigation practices in the entertainment sector. Beyond the courtroom, she serves on the boards of The Geffen Playhouse, the Los Angeles Music Center Theatre Group and the AltaMed Foundation.

Patricia L. GLASER Glaser Weil

Partner & Chair of the Litigation Department

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Reginald GOODEN 360 Business Management

Managing Partner

Reginald Gooden is the managing p ar t ner a t 3 60 Business Management. He relocated to Los Angeles in March 2018, initially working as a bookkeeper at a bicoastal business management firm. Within seven years in the enter tainment industry, he co-founded 360 Business Management, a company recognized by prestigious entertainment publications as an industry best. A graduate of NC State University, Gooden has over 20 years of business experience in finance, accounting and entertainment.

His career began as a performer and music producer, including an internship at Sony Music Studios in New York. He has produced projects for hip-hop artists and previously ran an independent record label. Gooden is a Hollywood Reporter Power Business Manager, a Variety Elite Business Manager and a Billboard Top Business Manager.

Ilan HAIMOFF Sarah Graham, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, advises some of the biggest names in media, entertainment and sports, bringing deep industry insight to complex business transactions. She represents talent, production companies, private equity firms and investors in high-profile deals across film, television, music and branded ventures. Notable transactions include the sale of Stem Distribution to Concord, the merger of The Spring Hill Company with Fulwell 73 and Iconic Artists Group’s partnership with RZA. Gibson’s sports-related work includes representing the NFL in its joint venture with Skydance and Rich Paul in his expanded role with UTA. Committed to service, she advises the Friends of Malibu Urgent Care Center and supports local fire relief efforts, exemplifying her dedication to both clients and the community.

Sarah L. GRAHAM Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Partner

GHJ | Partner

As partner and entertainment practice leader at GHJ, Ilan Haimoff, CPA, CIA, CFE, CFF, leverages more than 30 years of experience in profit participation, forensic accounting and royalty licensing to promote financial transparency across the industry. He has worked with major and independent studios to ensure fair and accurate reporting, while also serving as a thought leader in the field. Haimoff is a regular speaker at events hosted by the ABA, BHBA and USC Gould, and he contributes to key publications like The Movie Business Book. He also hosts GHJ’s “Media Clips Podcast,” where he interviews high-level industry figures. A mentor and advocate within his firm, he is committed to developing the next generation of forensic accountants and helping shape GHJ’s approach to entertainment finance.

Amitha HARICHANDRAN SB Capital Management, Inc. | Wealth Management Partner

As wealth management partner at SB Capital Management, Inc., Amitha Harichandran leads firmwide operations and compliance while delivering tailored financial guidance rooted in trust and service. Since joining the firm in 2008, she has risen to a leadership role through a rare ability to blend financial acumen with deeply personalized client care. Her work consistently supports high-net-worth individuals, particularly in the entertainment industry, with the firm now managing over $1.23 billion in assets. Clients frequently rely on Harichandran during critical moments – whether navigating cyber threats, coordinating charitable planning or managing personal transitions. She’s known for her ability to “straighten chaos,” earning praise for her calm command under pressure. She also supports nonprofits such as Hope the Mission and Imagine LA, extending her impact far beyond finance.

Congratulations to our partners Arash Khalili, Scott Edel and Ivy Kagan Bierman on being named 2025 Entertainment Business Visionaries by LA Times Studios.

We applaud your leadership, innovation and impact across the entertainment industry and beyond.

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ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

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Kevin D. HOLMES

Shaun HARPER USC Race and Equity Center

Founder & Professor

Shaun Harper is the founder of the USC Race and Equity Center and a university professor at the University of Southern California, where he holds faculty appointments in the Marshall School of Business, Price School of Public Policy and Rossier School of Education. One of the country’s foremost experts on racial and gender equity, he has advised major entertainment entities including NBCUniversal, Hulu, Bad Robot, Amazon Music and Ziffren Brittenham. A prolific scholar, Harper has authored 12 books and over 100 academic papers, with a forthcoming book, Let’s Talk About DEI, featuring multiple chapters on entertainment. Quoted widely in national media, he has also advised more than 400 institutions across industries and currently leads DEI strategy for the 2028 Olympics.

Withum | Partner

David Hernand is a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he brings over two decades of experience advising on high-profile M&A transactions. Joining the firm’s Los Angeles office in 2024, he is known for representing marquee clients in transformative deals. This year, Hernand advised Metaphysic AI on its $1.43-billion merger with DNEG’s tech division to form Brahma AI and represented audiochuck Media in securing a $40-million investment from The Chernin Group. He also led Vice Media’s sale of Refinery29 and the relaunch of Vice’s digital brands through a joint venture with Savage Ventures. Frequently recognized by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Hernand also serves on the board of The Painted Turtle and is a member of the ABA’s M&A Committee.

David HERNAND Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Partner

Kevin D. Holmes is a partner at Withum and a nationally recognized CPA with over 30 years of experience in auditing and advisory services. Based in Los Angeles, he specializes in internal controls optimization and entertainment industry audits, including financial, royalty, compliance and fraud-related engagements. Holmes is certified in both COSO Internal Control and AICPA Cybersecurity Advisory Services. His clients include A-list talent, business management firms and entertainment entities, where he has uncovered underreported royalties and prevented fraud. As a leader at Withum, he mentors professionals and strengthens firm-wide entertainment expertise. Holmes is also deeply engaged in philanthropy, having served as board chair of the College of the Canyons Foundation and CFO of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Carolyn HUNT Barnes & Thornburg LLP | Partner

Carolyn Hunt, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP, brings nearly three decades of experience advising clients on film, television and gaming transactions, with over $1.2 billion in completed content distribution, production financing and tax credit monetization deals. She represents a range of entertainment and financial clients, including Lionsgate, IMAX, City National Bank, East West Bank and Venus Williams, offering both legal counsel and business strategy tailored to the industry. In 2024 alone, Hunt closed financing deals for high-profile films such as “We Bury the Dead,” “The Surfer,” “Mary” and “Bad Apples” and for TV projects like “Cutlers Court.” An active member of the entertainment law community, she serves on several nonprofit and arts boards, including MOCA Contemporaries, Cedars-Sinai and the Heartland Film Festival.

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Ivy KAGAN BIERMAN

Steve HURDLE Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Partner, Corporate & Financial Services

A s a par tner in Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP’s corporate & financial services department and entertainment transactions practice, Steve Hurdle counsels clients across a wide spectrum of industries, with a deep focus on media, entertainment and celebrity-driven ventures. He advises investors, talent and companies on M&A, joint ventures, equity offerings and strategic partnerships – representing film studios, digital content companies, talent agencies, business management firms and high-profile individuals. Over the past two years, Hurdle has led key deals including Create Music Group’s $165-million investment from Flexpoint Ford, Hyphenate Media Group’s investment in GloNation Studios and Primary Wave’s partnership with the Village People. He also advised North Road Company in its acquisition of Karga Seven Pictures and voice actor Charles Martinet in his transition to Mario Ambassador.

Loeb & Loeb LLP | Chair, Entertainment Labor

Lawrence Iser is the co-founder and managing partner of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP, where he has built a reputation as a top trial lawyer for complex entertainment and intellectual property disputes. A longtime counsel to Mattel, he secured a full defense verdict in 2024 in a $31-million idea theft suit over the ABC show “The Toy Box,” marking a landmark moment for idea submission law in Hollywood. Iser’s victories also include a $5-million arbitration award for “Married at First Sight” producer Kinetic Content and successful enforcement of confidentiality terms for “Love Is Blind.” His music litigation clients include The Beatles, Public Enemy and Lizzo. A USC lecturer and nationally recognized litigator, Iser has been named a “Legal Visionary” and Billboard’s “Top Music Lawyer” five years running.

Lawrence ISER Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP

Managing Partner

As chair of Loeb & Loeb’s entertainment labor group, Ivy Kagan Bierman is a nationally recognized labor attorney and thought leader known for guiding studios, networks and digital platforms through complex guild and union negotiations. With over 35 years of experience, she advises clients including Warner Bros. Animation, STX, BuzzFeed and Flawless AI on collective bargaining, strike navigation, interim agreements and workplace conduct. During the 2023 dual strikes, Bierman was a vital voice, offering around-the-clock counsel and publicly advocating for respectful labor-management relations. She also serves as co-chair of her firm’s DEI Committee and teaches at Pepperdine, Northwestern and University of Miami law schools. She sits on Mayor Karen Bass’ Entertainment Industry Workforce Development Subcommittee and is a co-founder of GreenLight Women.

Wayne KAMEMOTO Citrin Cooperman | Partner & Music Industry Practice Leader

Wayne Kamemoto is a partner and music industry practice leader at Citrin Cooperman, bringing 30 years of experience in music and entertainment business management.

A CPA and Chartered Global Management Accountant, he provides tax, accounting, royalty inspection and consulting services. Prior to joining Citrin Cooperman, Kamemoto served as a senior tax manager at Deloitte. Under his leadership, the firm’s music industry practice has expanded, adding top talent to serve a growing roster of high-profile clients. He has been recognized in Forbes and other publications for his impact on entertainment finance.

Outside of his professional work, Kamemoto is deeply committed to youth sports, coaching basketball through the City of Los Angeles and LAUSD, where he currently leads a girls’ varsity team at a local magnet high school.

PROTECTING WEALTH, EMPOWERING LEGACIES

360 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT congratulates REGGIE GOODEN for being recognized among the 2025 ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

by LA TIMES STUDIOS.

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

LA TIMES STUDIOS

Nicole KING

Michael David KARLIN NKSFB, LLC

Founding Partner

As a founding partner at NKSFB, LLC, Michael David Karlin manages the business and financial affairs of many high-net-worth clients, including executives, real estate developers and entertainment industry professionals. With 49 years in the industry, 44 of them with his current firm, he specializes in business management, focusing on financial and generational planning, cash flow management, contract review and tax planning. Karlin successfully assisted in closing several sales of client music publishing catalogs and a client podcast business. He has been consistently recognized by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Billboard as a top business manager, receiving Variety’s Business Manager Elite Award in 2015. A University of Southern California alumnus, he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees and serves on multiple boards, including the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

Linden Entertainment | Co-Founder

Arash Khalili is the firmwide co-chair of Loeb & Loeb LLP and co-chair of its corporate & capital markets department, where he leads complex deals across entertainment, sports and a broad range of consumer industries. A key figure in the firm’s top-ranked sports practice, he advises athletes, influencers, production companies and global brands on strategic transactions. In the past year, Khalili has represented clients such as Morgan Wallen, Carrie Underwood, Cindy Crawford, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Lionel Richie and Reggie Bush on branding, corporate and endorsement matters. He also advised the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in Salt Lake City’s successful 2034 Winter Olympics bid and oversaw the majority stake sale of Vin Di Bona Productions.

Arash KHALILI Loeb & Loeb LLP

Firmwide Co-Chair & Current Co-Chair of the Corporate & Capital Markets Department

Nicole King, co-founder of Linden Entertainment, is a veteran talent manager and producer known for cultivating long-term, multidimensional careers for high-profile clients.

Her management roster includes Jennifer Garner, Eiza González, Hilary Duff, Ellen Pompeo and Kat Dennings, among others. Through Linden’s production arm, King has produced hit projects like Netflix’s “Family Switch” and “Yes Day,” both starring Garner, and Hulu’s “Dollface.” She also leads Linden Ventures, guiding clients into successful brand partnerships and ownership opportunities, such as Once Upon a Farm, YSE Beauty and Casa Azul.

A former partner at Management 360, she brings over two decades of experience to her work in management, production and strategic brand building. King is also deeply involved in philanthropy, having co-launched #SAVEWITHSTORIES and serving on the advisory committee of Baby2Baby.

Peter KLASS GHJ | Partner & Profit Participation Services Practice Leader

Peter Klass, CFE, serves as partner and profit participation services practice leader at GHJ, where he is recognized as a leading expert in entertainment profit participation and contract compliance. With over two decades of experience, he has represented major studios, investors and talent, helping them navigate complex financial structures and maximize their entitlements. Klass has conducted audits for top clients at Disney, Warner Bros., Universal and Paramount, making GHJ’s practice one of the most trusted in the industry. Outside of his professional work, he actively supports the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Los Angeles and the LA Regional Food Bank and played a leading role in GHJ’s Ukraine relief efforts, reflecting his broader commitment to service

Robb KLEIN Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP | Partner

Robb Klein, a seasoned entertainment attorney with over three decades of experience, is a partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, where he specializes in high-profile financing, production, distribution, merchandising and licensing deals across film, television, music and digital content. Recognized for his ability to navigate complex international co-productions and structure innovative transactions, he advises a global client base including Toho Co., CTS Eventim, wiip, Banc of California and Ashland Hill Media Finance. Klein’s practice spans from independent films to major studio releases, as well as emerging sectors like AI-generated content and international music tours. Originally trained in the U.K. and licensed in both England and Wales, he joined Sheppard Mullin in 2008 and has led the firm’s entertainment, technology and advertising practice.

Elaina KOGAN Singer Burke Zimmer & Kogan, LLP | Tax Partner

Elaina Kogan is the tax partner at Singer Burke Zimmer & Kogan, LLP, where she leads the firm’s tax compliance and planning efforts for high-net-worth clients in the entertainment industry. With over 26 years of experience, she has a proven track record of delivering innovative strategies that reduce tax liabilities and streamline financial operations for top-tier content creators, showrunners and media executives. Kogan began her career at KPMG and joined Singer Burke in 2003, bringing a refined focus on closely held businesses and individual tax needs. Known for her strategic vision and collaborative leadership, she improves process efficiency and cultivates a culture of trust and excellence.

Outside of work, Kogan is active in her synagogue and supports nonprofits including Hope the Mission and Imagine LA.

44 LATIMES.COM/B2B/ENTERTAINMENT

Andrew KRAMER Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Chair, Motion Picture, Television & Entertainment Finance

Andrew Kramer ser ves as chair of the motion picture, television & entertainment finance practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where he brings over 30 years of experience advising studios, production companies, lenders and distributors.

Known for structuring high-value transactions across film, television and digital media, he offers strategic counsel on content financing, licensing, distribution and monetization. Prior to joining Willkie, Kramer was COO of international distribution at Lionsgate and held senior legal roles at major studios.

Recent deals include representing 5&2 Studios on its landmark agreement with Amazon MGM Studios for “The Chosen,” and advising Banc of California on a $60-million credit facility. Kramer’s leadership at Willkie has solidified the firm’s entertainment finance platform.

Reginald Lang is the managing director at JPMorganChase, where he has spent over two decades advising leading media & entertainment clients on complex financial and capital markets strategies. Since beginning his investment banking career at J.P. Morgan in New York in 1999, he has developed deep expertise in the sector, building long-term relationships with top-tier clients and providing tailored advisory services. In 2018, Lang joined the firm’s entertainment industries group in Los Angeles, where he continues to lead major transactions and strategic initiatives for clients such as Lionsgate and Starz, Legendary Entertainment, CAA, Hasbro and Oak View Group.

Beyond his professional work, he is active in JPMorganChase’s GoodWorks volunteerism group and supports youth sports and education initiatives in the Pacific Palisades community.

Reginald LANG JPMorganChase

Managing Director

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David P. LEFEBVRE Covington & Burling LLP

Special Counsel

David P. Lefebvre is special counsel at Covington & B u r l i n g L L P, where he advises leading media and entertainment companies, sports leagues and content owners on complex licensing, distribution and media rights agreements. His practice spans traditional and digital plat forms, including streaming, broadcast, cable and mobile. Lefebvre recently co-led Disney’s $8.5-billion merger of Star India with Viacom18 and advised on Paramount Global’s proposed $8-billion merger with Skydance Media. He also represented Disney in a landmark carriage deal with Charter Spectrum, praised as transformative for the industry. He regularly supports clients with high-value network agreements, rights deals and MFN analyses. In addition to his commercial work, Lefebvre maintains an active pro bono practice representing foster families, domestic violence survivors and humanitarian parole applicants.

Matthew Burke

Shannon Leitch is vice president of lending operations at First Entertainment Credit Union, the premier financial partner for creators in the entertainment industry. With over 20 years of lending experience, she brings deep expertise in business development, underwriting, operations, marketing and investor relations, helping entertainment professionals and businesses access the capital they need to grow and thrive. Since joining First Entertainment in 2021, Leitch has focused on building strategic financial solutions tailored to the unique needs of the entertainment community. She’s a proven leader with a strong track record of cultivating long-lasting relationships with members, teammates and partners.

Prior to joining First Entertainment, she held leadership roles in commercial banking and private lending, including co-founding REM Capital Group, where she managed business development, loan policy creation and national sales.

Shannon LEITCH First Entertainment Credit Union

VP of Lending Operations

Elaina Kogan

Andrea LINK SingerLewak | Partner & Practice Leader

Andrea Link serves as partner and practice leader at SingerLewak, where she advises high-net-worth individuals, startups and entertainment clients on tax strategy and business management. With over two decades of experience, she offers comprehensive consulting in individual and business tax planning, family wealth and estate matters. Link’s clients span film and TV production, concert promotion and loan-out corporations, and she frequently collaborates with agents, attorneys and personal managers to deliver integrated solutions. She is also adept at handling cross-border tax issues for international entertainers. Before joining SingerLewak, she co-owned Laurand Management, which merged with Gumbiner Savett in 2018. Link’s prior roles include serving as global tax director for a Fortune 200 company and as a consultant at a Big 4 firm.

Dana LOWY Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers LLP | Co-Founder & Partner

As the co-founder and partner at Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers LLP, Dana Lowy is a veteran family law attorney known for representing high-profile clients in high-asset divorces, custody disputes and prenuptial agreements with discretion and strategic expertise. With 30 years in the industry, she is widely respected for minimizing courtroom battles and maintaining strict confidentiality – earning her a reputation as “the vault” among billionaires, producers, directors, athletes and talent. A founding member of the all-female firm, Lowy has helped grow the practice to 25 attorneys across Century City and Irvine. She has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as a “Power Lawyer: Troubleshooter,” named among the Top 100 Lawyers by the Los Angeles Business Journal and consistently honored by Lawdragon, Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America.

Richard Singer

Amitha Harichandran

Stephanie Arkof

Congratulations to our esteemed partners for being recognized as

2025 ENTERTAIN MENT BUSIN ESS VISIONAR IES

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

LA TIMES STUDIOS

Nick MCCOY

Glen G. MASTROBERTE Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Partner

Glen G. M astrober te is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he has led some of the most high-profile global entertainment transactions. In 2024, he advised Reliance Industries on its $8.5-billion joint venture with Disney and Viacom18, the largest media deal in Indian history. Mastroberte represented Downtown Music Group in its $775-million sale to Virgin Music Group and advised OVO Sound in its sale to Sony Music. He also advises Bad Robot, The Jim Henson Company and the NHL. His work has earned recognition in The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA. He joined Skadden in 2018 and has over 23 years of experience in the field.

Stifel Financial | Financial Advisor

Jordan Matthews is the founding partner of Holtz Matthews LLP, a litigation firm specializing in high-profile entertainment, harassment and employment cases. He co-led landmark litigation against Steve Wynn, which resulted in Wynn’s resignation from Wynn Resorts and the Republican Finance Committee, a $10-million fine and permanent removal from the gaming industry. He also represents producers and investors in A-list film litigation and serves as lead counsel for high-profile clients, including showrunner Brian A. Metcalf, producer Alexis Varouxakis and influencer Jaclyn Johnson. Matthews is currently litigating a high-stakes commission dispute involving Lululemon ambassador Deja Riley. He launched the firm in 2023 with Michael Holtz, a veteran litigator formerly of Lavely & Singer.

Jordan MATTHEWS Holtz Matthews LLP

Founding Partner

Nick McCoy is a financial advisor at Stifel Financial, where he helps manage assets for high-net-worth families, athletes and content creators. A former Los Angeles Angels executive and collegiate athlete, he leverages leadership and risk management strategies to build customized, datadriven wealth plans. Since joining Stifel in 2021, McCoy has guided clients through estate planning, charitable giving and legacy management using boutique-style attention with access to one of the nation’s leading investment banks. With over three years of experience, he holds an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of San Diego, with additional certifications in sports and entertainment wealth advising. He holds Series 7 and Series 66 licenses, along with life and health insurance credentials.

James CARLOS MCFALL Foley & Lardner LLP | Partner

James Carlos McFall, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, is a national leader in Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) law and sports-tech ventures. He secured an injunction allowing NBA guard Anthony Black to play varsity sports, setting a precedent for athlete eligibility. McFall represents elite athletes, including C.J. Stroud and has advised universities and collectives on NIL compliance. He co-founded Lockerverse, a digital platform selected for the Disney Accelerator program, and recently helped launch Reggie Bush’s sports-tech venture.

A seasoned litigator in First Amendment and entertainment law, he also protects journalists and filmmakers in defamation disputes. McFall joined Foley in 2024, has 13 years of experience, and earned his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and both M.A. and B.A. degrees from Stanford University.

Debra ELLWOOD MEPPEN Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP | Partner & Chair of the

National Employment Law Practice Group

Debra Ellwood Meppen is a partner at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP and chair of its national employment law practice group. With 29 years of experience, including 23 at GRSM, she resolves high-stakes matters for major Hollywood figures, often preventing multimillion-dollar losses and reputational fallout. In 2023, Meppen closed a record number of sensitive entertainment cases without litigation or publicity. She leads firmwide DEI and women’s leadership programs and co-chairs the Leadership Equality and Diversity Program. Her legal guidance blends discretion, strategy and diplomacy, making her a trusted advisor in crisis negotiation. Outside of the firm, Meppen also serves as a Los Angeles Superior Court settlement officer and volunteers with UCLA Operation Mend and L.A. Family Housing.

Michael MESCHURES MGO | Business Management Partner

Michael Meschures, a business management partner at MGO, brings over a decade of experience advising clients in entertainment, sports, media and high-net-worth families and executives. For 14 years in the industry, eight with MGO, he has been dedicated to offering personalized support, empowering clients to make informed financial decisions and preserve their wealth. Meschures has been instrumental in driving significant growth within MGO’s business management practice, expanding its reach and fostering a collaborative team environment. A graduate of UCLA for his undergraduate studies and USC for his graduate work, he also serves on the board of America Needs You. His leadership helps clients navigate daily financial challenges, both large and small, ensuring strategic wealth preservation.

46 LATIMES.COM/B2B/ENTERTAINMENT

Lisa HELFEND MEYER Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers LLP

Co-Founder & Senior Partner

Lisa Helfend Meyer is the co -founder and senior partner at Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers LLP, a top boutique family law firm based in Los Angeles. For more than 40 years, she has handled high-stakes divorces and custody matters for entertainers, executives and athletes. Meyer’s public cases include the marriage dissolutions of Christina Ricci, Nicole Young, Jwan Yosef, Brody Dalle, Janet McCormack and Brandon Blackstock. Known for resolving emotionally charged disputes with discretion and strategic precision, she was recently recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as a “Troubleshooter” for high-profile family law matters. She’s been named a Super Lawyer for 20 years and ranked among the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California and the Daily Journal’s Top Family Lawyers list. Meyer founded the firm over 25 years ago and continues to lead it as a nationally recognized force in family law.

Alissa Miller, partner at Akin and head of the firm’s Los Angeles office, is one of Hollywood’s most trusted finance lawyers. She negotiates high-value entertainment transactions and credit facilities for clients like A24, Netflix and ABC. Miller represented lenders in multimillion-dollar deals, including a $400-million credit facility for a global entertainment company and a $90-million facility for a premium studio. She advised HarbourView Equity Partners on projects with Usher and investments in Mucho Mas Media. She also maintains a strong pro bono practice, advising the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Public Counsel.

Over 24 years at Akin, Miller has become a go-to dealmaker for top-tier clients in film, television and finance.

Alissa MILLER Akin

Partner

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ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

Kyle NEAL

Darrell D. MILLER Fox Rothschild

Managing Partner & Founding Chair of the Entertainment & Sports Law Department

Darrell D. Miller is the managing p a r t n e r o f F ox Rothschild’s Los Angeles office and founding chair of its entertainment & sports law department. With over three decades of experience, he structures major deals for A-listers like Angela Bassett, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Taylor Tomlinson. In 2023, Miller closed a multi-year overall deal between Bassett Vance Productions and 20th Television. His clients star in major productions across Netflix, FX, Disney and CBS, with recent work including “Monkey Boy,” “Grotesquerie,” “Eternity” and “The Last of Us.” He is known for securing multimillion-dollar endorsements and media deals at a time of industry volatility. Miller also advises Grammy-winning ar tists like Jonathan McReynolds on licensing and distribution. With 16 years at Fox Rothschild, he remains a key legal architect behind some of the industry’s biggest cross-platform content and talent partnerships.

Mark Mondello joined Kroll (formerly Duff & Phelps) in 2005 where he is a managing director in the Los Angeles office and part of the firm’s valuation advisory practice; he also leads Kroll’s entertainment and media industry group.

He has more than 25 years of corporate finance experience and prior to joining Duff & Phelps, he was a managing director with Standard & Poor’s corporate value consulting where he worked for 13 years. Mondello specializes in directing valuation studies of businesses and interests in businesses, intangible assets and intellectual property. His expertise in entertainment and media has led him to play a key role in numerous high-profile transactions in this industry over the last 15 years. In addition, he provided services to many of the world’s leading entertainment and media companies.

Mark MONDELLO Kroll

Managing Director

GRSM IS PROUD TO CONGRATULATE

Debra Ellwood Meppen for being honored as a 2025 Entertainment Business Visionary

This recognition is a testament to her decades of legal excellence, commitment to mentorship, and the confidence she inspires in clients and colleagues alike.

As the only law firm with offices and attorneys in all 50 states, we provide full-service representation seamlessly across the U.S.

grsm.com

Northern Trust | Senior Relationship Advisor

Kyle Neal is a senior relationship advisor at Northern Trust, where she advises high-net-worth clients and multi-generational families on trust administration and estate planning strategies. After joining the firm 10 years ago, she was promoted to senior vice president for her leadership and client service in the L.A. region. Previously an estate planning attorney, Neal became a trusted advisor to clients in the entertainment and nonprofit sectors. She has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer and featured on the cover of Los Angeles Lawyer. She’s active in the community, volunteering with the LA Food Bank and participating in the California AIDS Ride. At Northern Trust, Neal also mentors colleagues through in-house trust education and co-chaired the Estate Counselors Forum, advancing the estate planning field through professional development.

Harley J. NEUMAN Neuman + Associates, A Division of NKSFB | Partner & Founder

Harley J. Neuman is a partner and founder of Neuman + Associates, a division of NKSFB, where he represents A-list talent, artists and industry executives. He founded the firm in 1991 and brought it into a merger with NKSFB six years ago, creating one of the top business management platforms in entertainment. Neuman began his career at Deloitte & Touche, leading its entertainment industry practice before launching his own firm. Over three decades in the business, he has become a fixture in Hollywood finance and was recognized as The Hollywood Reporter’s first-ever “Business Manager Icon” in 2018. He is a longtime member of both the AICPA and the California Society of CPAs, where he chaired the annual Entertainment Industry Conference.

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

LA TIMES STUDIOS

Stacy O’NEIL

Ramela OHANIAN

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

Partner

Ramela Ohanian, partner at Sheppard Mullin, negotiates cutting-edge entertainment deals for major players like Meta, Amazon Studios and Wondery. She joined the firm seven years ago and has quickly become a go-to dealmaker in film, television, podcasts and AI. She structured Amazon’s multiyear film partnership with Scott Stuber and led talent deals for Meta’s AI chatbot launch featuring Tom Brady and Kendall Jenner. Ohanian also closed high-profile podcast deals for Wondery and talent agreements for Nickelodeon and TelevisaUnivision. In addition to her transactional work, she mentors junior attorneys and sits on multiple bar association boards. She regularly speaks at Harvard and Loyola law schools and serves on the executive committee of the Armenian Women’s Bar Association, helping shape diversity initiatives in entertainment law.

Anthony J. Oncidi is co-chair emeritus of Proskauer’s labor & employment law department and head of its West Coast practice. With 23 years at the firm, he is lead employment counsel to some of the industry’s most influential organizations, including THE GRAMMYS, FOX, Sony Music, CAA and the NFL. Oncidi has defended major entertainment clients in disputes involving wrongful termination, harassment, class actions and trade secrets. He recently represented NBCUniversal and Bravo in high-profile litigation tied to the “Below Deck” series and successfully defended the GRAMMYs in multiple employee disputes. A frequent speaker, he has testified as an expert on wage law and edits Proskauer’s California Employment Law Blog. At his firm, Oncidi also advises on DEI initiatives and internal investigations across the media, sports and streaming sectors.

Anthony J. ONCIDI

Proskauer Rose LLP

Co-Chair Emeritus, Labor & Employment Law

Linden Entertainment | Co-Founder

Stacy O’Neil, co-founder of Linden Entertainment, is best known for guiding the careers of major stars like Amy Adams, Rachel Weisz and Vin Diesel. She launched the firm in 2020, and five years in, she’s built a client roster that includes Vanessa Kirby, Beanie Feldstein, Karen Gillan and more. Linden Productions recently earned five Tony Awards for Stereophonic, while O’Neil produced “Nightbitch” with Searchlight Pictures and “Dead Ringers” on Amazon, which earned her a Peabody Award. She also executive produced Peacock’s “Genie” and “Sam and Kate.” Earlier in her career, O’Neil led talent divisions at Brillstein and The Firm. She has been named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment and featured on Variety’s Power Women of Hollywood list.

Mark PARISER

Dunn, Pariser & Peyrot | CPA & Partner

Mark Pariser is a partner at Dunn, Pariser & Peyrot, where he brings 30 years of experience advising entertainment clients on complex tax and financial planning. With 15 years at the firm, he manages the financial affairs of actors, musicians, producers and executives, including artists like Blue October and Leikeli47. Pariser’s work includes royalty audits, business structuring and estate planning for both individuals and companies. He also advises production entities and record labels on tax compliance and financial forecasting. He has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and the Los Angeles Business Journal, and serves on the boards of SONA and the SONA Foundation. Pariser provides ongoing guidance to nonprofit organizations like Manifest Works, ensuring regulatory compliance while supporting mission-driven goals.

Michael PARKER

Capstone Global Management, Inc. | Founder & CEO

Capstone Global Management Founder and CEO Michael Parker leads a 100-person team advising entertainment and media clients on $20+ billion in transactions. Since launching the firm seven years ago, he has brought structured finance and capital markets innovation to the industry, including receivables financing, tax credit lending and IP monetization. He has advised Lionsgate on its separation from STARZ and its acquisition of eOne and structured a $1-billion IP-backed credit facility. With 20 years of experience in TMT finance, Parker has held senior leadership roles at HSBC, Citibank and NAB. He’s also a partner at Cedar Hill Entertainment Services, a film fund launched in 2024. His impact continues to grow as he helps independent producers and major studios access creative funding solutions.

James R. PARKS

CBIZ, Inc. | Executive Director

James R. Parks serves as executive director at CBIZ, where he leads the firm’s Western Region high-net-worth client group. After 30 years with CBIZ, he oversees offices from Seattle to Phoenix and brings four decades of experience in litigation consulting and management. He co-founded Parks, Palmer, Turner & Yemenidjian before it was acquired

by CBIZ in 1998. In entertainment, Parks has provided accounting services to clients like MGM, Twentieth Century Fox and Hanna-Barbera. He was formerly CEO of Laser Pacific Media, a public company later acquired by Kodak and sits on multiple boards, including Whittier Trust, CalPrivate Bank and the Autry Museum. In 2022, he helped reopen the Hotel Barriere Fouquet’s in New York following a strategic acquisition and renovation effort.

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Chris PEREZ

Donaldson Callif Perez LLP

Partner

Chris Perez is a par tner at Donaldson Callif Perez LLP, where he specializes in rights clearance and legal advocacy for documentary and independent filmmakers. With 15 years at the firm, he has represented hundreds of productions, including Oscar-winner “The Last Repair Shop” and Sundance premieres such as “Black Box Diaries,” “Gaucho Gaucho” and “Selena y Los Dinos.” Perez advises clients like Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, HBO, FX, Amazon and Film Independent. He co-authored the fifth edition of Clearance & Copyright and currently serves on the board of the International Documentary Association. In 2024 alone, he advised on legal issues for “Ricky Stanicky,” “Social Studies” and “The Apprentice.” Perez also supports filmmakers through the Archival Producers Alliance’s Generative AI Initiative, focusing on best practices in emerging technology.

Stacy Phillips, partner at Blank Rome LLP, leads complex family law matters for high-net-worth and high-profile clients.

With nine years at the firm, she has built a national reputation for her work in divorce, custody, domestic violence and pre- and post-nuptial agreements. Phillips sits on the firm’s Executive and Lateral Recruiting Committees and co-chairs its Women’s Leadership Summit. She is recognized by Chambers, Lawdragon, the Daily Journal and Super Lawyers and frequently speaks on mentorship and women’s leadership in law. She is vice chair of Public Counsel’s board and founder of the firm’s AdoptA-Center Program, now in its 25th year.

Through decades of legal practice and civic engagement, Phillips continues to advise clients facing highly sensitive family transitions.

Stacy PHILLIPS

Blank Rome LLP

Partner, Matrimonial & Family Law

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LA TIMES STUDIOS

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

Arya S. RAHIMIAN

Robyn R. POLASHUK

Kroll | Director, Valuation Advisory Services

Covington & Burling LLP

Partner & CoChair of Media & Entertainment Industry Group

Robyn R. Polashuk is a partner and co - chair of Covington & Burling LLP’s media & entertainment industry group. A 10-year veteran at the firm, she advises clients including Disney, Fox, Paramount Global, PBS and NFL Network on licensing and distribution deals across cable, streaming and digital platforms.

She led Disney’s $8.5-billion Star India merger with Reliance and advised on the Paramount-Skydance merger and Disney’s landmark carriage deal with Charter. Polashuk also represents studios in confidential distribution agreements with top providers like Comcast, DIRECTV and YouTube TV. With more than 30 years in the industry, she regularly serves in an advisory role on monetization and regulatory matters and also sits on the advisory boards for UCLA’s Ziffren Center and Entertainment Symposium.

Erin L. Prouty is a partner at Lagerlof, LLP and managing attorney of the firm’s El Segundo office. With two years at the firm and more than three decades in the field, she specializes in estate planning, probate litigation and tax strategy, often representing clients with complex financial holdings in entertainment. She is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Prouty also serves on the Board of Governors of the Beverly Hills Bar Association and lectures for organizations such as UCLA, USC and the Jewish Community Foundation. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at USC Gould School of Law, and her work spans both legal practice and public education on estate law.

Jacqueline Combs

Erin L. PROUTY Lagerlof, LLP

Partner

Arya S. Rahimian is a director at Kroll, where he leads valuation advisory services across media, tech and sports sectors. With 11 years at the firm, he has handled valuations for business interests, IP and securities for Fortune 500 companies and early-stage startups alike. Rahimian’s work supports mergers, financial reporting, joint ventures, tax planning and litigation. He has led the valuation of sports franchises, including their media rights and athlete likenesses. He works with clients in streaming, gaming, software and e-commerce.

Rahimian also participates in public policy conversations as a member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle. His advisory focus is grounded in analytics that support complex business decisions.

Elsa RAMO Ramo Law PC | Managing & Founding Partner

Elsa Ramo is the managing and founding partner of Ramo Law PC, where she leads a team that advises top producers and studios across film and television. With 20 years at the firm, she represents clients including Skydance, Imagine Entertainment and Concordia. Her 2024 slate included “The Apprentice,” “Jim Henson: Idea Man” and “SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night.” Ramo has negotiated deals for “Chef’s Table” and led international financing efforts for films like “The Beast.” She co-founded Vested Interest, a production company and serves as executive producer on “Dead Man’s Wire,” set for release in 2025. She is also the founder of the nonprofit PEFA and chairs UCLA’s Entertainment Symposium board, mentoring the next generation of entertainment lawyers.

Stacy D. Phillips

Kristina Royce

Congratulations to our Matrimonial & Family Law partners Jacqueline Combs, Stacy D. Phillips, and Kristina Royce for being recognized as 2025 “Entertainment Business Visionaries” by L.A. Times Studios.

Blank Rome is an Am Law 100 firm with 16 offices and more than 750 attorneys and principals who provide a full range of legal and advocacy services to clients operating in the United States and around the world.

Boston • Chicago • Cincinnati • Dallas • Fort Lauderdale • Houston • Los Angeles • Orange County • New York Philadelphia • Pittsburgh • Princeton • Shanghai • Tampa • Washington • Wilmington Attorney advertising. © 2025 Blank Rome LLP. All rights reserved.

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

LA TIMES STUDIOS

Vanessa ROMAN

Blank Rome partner Kristina Royce co-chairs the firm’s national matrimonial & family law practice, advising high-networth clients on complex divorce and custody cases. She joined the firm six years ago and now sits on the Partners Board while managing a prominent roster that includes celebrities and C-suite executives. Royce is known for navigating multi-day mediations that avoid costly litigation and preserving privacy for clients. Notably, she was retained by Arnold Schwarzenegger to finalize his divorce from Maria Shriver.

Her expertise spans valuations, pre- and post-nuptial agreements and private dispute resolution. Royce is also deeply involved in the legal community, including Cedars-Sinai’s Board of Governors and the Harriet Buhai Center and has been recognized by Chambers USA, the Daily Journal, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Akin

Partner

Vanessa Roman, par tner at Akin, advises banks and studios on entertainment financing deals across film and television. She has been with the firm for 13 years and leads major transactions for clients like Bank of America, East West Bank and JPMorgan Chase, including credit facilities totaling over $500 million. Roman recently represented Miramax, CAT5 and Fifth Season on high-profile projects and has provided legal support on blockbusters like “Greenland: Migration” and “Wrath of Man.” She also plays an active pro bono role, supporting AFI and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with intellectual property clearances. She serves on the board of Female Executives in Media and Entertainment, where she helps foster new leadership in the industry.

Kristina ROYCE Blank Rome LLP

Partner, Co-Chair of the Matrimonial & Family Law Practice Group

Daniel ROZANSKY Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP

Partner, Co-Chair of the Business Litigation Practice

Daniel Rozansky, partner at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles LLP, co-chairs the firm’s business litigation practice and brings 33 years of legal experience across entertainment and commercial sectors. He joined the firm seven years ago and is widely recognized for his litigation strategies on behalf of film studios, digital platforms and music clients.

Rozansky has handled disputes ranging from copyright and rights of publicity to First Amendment and profit participation claims. His work also spans digital media, podcast formats and the legal implications of social content. He is active on nonprofit and industry boards, including Vista del Mar and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Rozansky has received recognition from Chambers USA, Variety and Forbes, as well as numerous “Top Litigator” honors.

Joseph RUST Prager Metis | Chief Strategic Innovation Officer

Joseph Rust, chief strategic innovation officer at Prager Metis, leads the firm’s Western Region and advisory services department while overseeing innovation initiatives firmwide. A 40-year veteran with Prager Metis, he is widely known for recovering royalties and managing IP valuation and licensing issues in the music and entertainment industries. Rust works with recording artists, publishers and executives to provide strategic planning, audit and business management services. As a thought leader, he contributes regularly to panels on artificial intelligence and copyright law and helps develop proprietary AI tools to track streaming revenues and detect royalty discrepancies. He is a board member of the California Southland Alzheimer’s Association and has been involved in fundraising and awareness efforts.

Neema T. SAHNI Covington & Burling LLP | Partner, Co-Chair of the

Entertainment & Media Industry Group

At Covington & Burling LLP, Neema T. Sahni serves as partner and co-chair of the entertainment & media industry group, advising clients across litigation and transactional matters. In her 13 years with the firm, she has handled disputes for Netflix, TikTok and Spotify, and led high-profile cases such as “Squid Game” and “Rebel Moon.” Sahni also maintains a strong advisory practice, counseling major sports leagues, studios and music companies on risk management and litigation strategy. She has successfully defended coverage claims for Shari Redstone and National Amusements and helps guide Covington’s music and sports law efforts. A former in-house attorney at Disney, she is known for balancing legal strategy with operational insight. Sahni also serves on various boards like USC’s IP Institute and the South Asian Bar Association.

Jesse SAIVAR Greenberg Glusker | Chair, Intellectual Property & Technology

Jesse Saivar, chair of the intellectual property & technology group at Greenberg Glusker, provides legal counsel to a prominent roster of digital media and entertainment clients.

A 19-year veteran of the firm, he represents Barstool Sports, The Free Press, Morning Brew and Invisible Universe, among others. Saivar advises on IP licensing, trademark strategy, talent agreements and brand partnerships across formats including streaming, animation and podcasting. His work includes securing rights deals for Quinn, Flighthouse, Jomboy Media and Exploding Kitten and has also helped structure AI and licensing agreements for projects combining traditional content with emerging tech. Named an “IP Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal, Saivar is frequently recognized for his innovative work in digital and consumer brand strategy.

50 LATIMES.COM/B2B/ENTERTAINMENT

Ilissa SAMPLIN Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Partner, Co-Chair of the Media, Entertainment & Technology Practice Group

Ilissa Samplin, partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, co-chairs the firm’s media, entertainment & technology practice and is a lead litigator in some of the industry’s highest-stakes disputes. She has been with Gibson Dunn for 12 years and represents clients such as AMC Networks, Warner Bros., Yahoo! and Lady Gaga in cases involving copyright, defamation and profit par ticipation. Samplin also advises on licensing and intellectual property, often taking matters through trial or arbitration. Her clients include major studios, streamers and emerging platforms. She recently secured a key victory in “The Walking Dead” litigation and defended Peacock in a $100-million suit by Sean Combs. Samplin’s legal acumen and trial experience make her one of the top litigators navigating highvalue entertainment and tech disputes in U.S. courts.

As managing director and banker at JPMorgan Private Bank, Malak Santini advises clients in media, sports and entertainment on wealth preservation and investment strategy. She has spent 14 years with the firm, rising from marketing executive to senior leadership and co-developed JPMorgan’s media and entertainment banking vertical. Santini helps high-profile clients build comprehensive financial plans encompassing estate, philanthropic and international holdings. She played a key role in forging the bank’s partnership with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. A member of the firm’s Greater Market Leadership Team, she also serves on the boards of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission and City Year LA. Santini’s work combines institutional expertise with community engagement, positioning her as a key advisor in both finance and civic development.

Malak SANTINI JPMorgan Private Bank

Managing Director & Banker

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LA TIMES STUDIOS

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

Robert M. SCHWARTZ Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

Partner

Rober t M. Schwar tz is a partner at Quinn Em a nu el U rqu har t & Sullivan, LLP and one of the country’s top media and entertainment litigators. With 35 years in practice and seven at the firm, he has argued precedent-setting cases like MGM v. Grokster and Eldred v. Ashcroft and has represented every major studio, network and label. In recent years, Schwartz has secured wins for OpenAI, Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion and Take-Two Interactive, among others. His broad litigation focus includes copyright, defamation and name-image-likeness rights. He also played a lead role in litigation that shut down Los Angeles County’s flawed PACE home financing program. Chambers and The Hollywood Reporter have honored him, with the latter naming him a “Living Legend” in 2023.

Usman Shaikh is the managing partner and founder of U.S. Law Group, a boutique firm specializing in corporate and entertainment transactions. A former AM100 associate and agent trainee at ICM, he launched his firm 12 years ago and now advises producers and financiers on complex deal structures.

Shaikh’s recent work includes financing “The Apprentice,” structuring dual-reg offerings for Pressman Film and helping an Emmy-nominated, minority-owned company secure seed capital. He currently advises on two film funds and a venture-backed studio. Outside the firm, he promotes Muslim-Jewish relations and indigenous arts through roles with The Urban Warehouse, Ondalinda Foundation and MPAC’s Hollywood Bureau.

Shaikh has also advised on intellectual property deals tied to the Abraham Accords and high-profile legacy rights acquisitions.

Usman SHAIKH U.S. Law Group

Managing Partner & Founder

Richard SINGER SB Capital Management, Inc. | Wealth Management Partner

Richard Singer is the wealth management partner at SB Capital Management, Inc., where he leads investment strategy and client services for high-net-worth individuals. Over the last 22 years with SB Capital – and 28 in the industry – he has grown the firm’s assets under management to more than $1.2 billion. Singer’s entertainment clients include content creators, executives and production companies.

Prior to founding SB Capital, he managed tech investments and led development initiatives in Asia for Signal Soft. His strategic acumen spans private equity, real estate and M&A advisory. Singer also teaches financial literacy to underserved youth through Operation Hope and supports nonprofits like Hope the Mission and Imagine LA. Known for solving complex challenges, he has recently assisted clients with hostile board takeovers and elder care planning.

Thomas F. SMITH Prager Metis | Partner & Entertainment Industry Leader

Thomas F. Smith is partner-in-charge of the entertainment and music group at Prager Metis, where he advises clients across the entertainment ecosystem. With 25 years in the accounting field and eight at Prager Metis, he works with touring artists, producers and media executives on tax, business management and strategic planning. He’s been featured by Billboard and Variety for three straight years and speaks regularly on managing touring costs, financial risk and sports-related wealth planning. Smith’s focus is long-term financial health – guiding clients away from impulsive purchases and toward diversified income streams like merchandise and branded content. He also leads philanthropic initiatives, including the Alzheimer’s Walk in Westport. His involvement with an invite-only entertainment advisor network keeps him connected to key industry players across major cities.

Congratulations!

Joseph Rust Thomas Smith

for being recognized as 2025 Entertainment Business Visionaries by LA Times Studios Thank you for continuing the traditon of unparalleled, people-first service. Cheers to all of this year’s & Accountants for Entertainment Advisors honorees!

We understand the complexities and challenges of the entertainment and music industry. Prager Metis has specialized in accounting and advisory services for the entertainment and music industry since its inception, over 100 years ago.

ment Entertain Advisors & Accountants for Entertainment

PRAGERMETIS.COM

NEW YORK | LOS ANGELES | LONDON | MIAMI

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

LA TIMES STUDIOS

Nick SOLTMAN

Meyoung Spektor is a mortgage industry leader with over 20 years of experience and a proven track record in sales leadership. As director of community sales at First Entertainment Credit Union, the premier financial institution to creators in the entertainment industry, she has helped drive over $319 million in mortgage origination volume in the past two years, fostering growth, innovation and collaboration. Since joining First Entertainment in 2023, Spektor has been dedicated to helping entertainment professionals achieve homeownership and financial stability. Previously, she was a top-producing mortgage leader at major financial institutions, including Chase, Bank of America, PNC, Union Bank and US Bank. For her educational background, she holds an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Science in marketing and organizational management.

Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP

Partner

Nick Soltman, partner at Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP, is a go-to advocate for Hollywood A-listers, particularly in claims involving profit participation disputes and defamation. He is a longtime counsel to Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, representing them in various public and confidential matters. This past year, Soltman was a member of the KHIKS team that successfully represented Meghan in a defamation action filed by her half-sister over the royals’ high-profile interview with Oprah Winfrey. He is also currently representing actor Timothy Hutton in state court litigation in connection with the reboot of “Leverage.” Additionally, he is currently representing Roddenberry Entertainment in state court litigation over the long-lost USS Enterprise model that belonged to the creator of the iconic “Star Trek” series, Gene Roddenberry.

Meyoung SPEKTOR First Entertainment Credit Union

Director of Community Sales

Chris SPICER Akin | Partner

Chris Spicer is a partner at Akin and head of the firm’s media, entertainment and sports practice. He focuses on entertainment finance, advising on high-value deals involving film, television, music and gaming. His recent work includes a $1.1-billion senior secured credit facility for a mini-major studio and a $100-million equity investment in a multimedia company. Over nearly two decades in the industry – 17 of them at Akin – Spicer has handled major transactions for clients such as Comerica Bank, East West Bank and Fifth Season.

He is a member of Akin’s Management Committee and plays a leadership role in attorney mentorship through the Akin Advisor program. Recognized by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, he also maintains a pro bono practice supporting the American Film Institute and other nonprofit organizations.

Daisy STALL California Bank & Trust

EVP, Director of Entertainment and Media Finance

Daisy Stall is the executive vice president and director of entertainment and media finance at California Bank & Trust. Prior to joining CB&T, she held senior roles at Union Bank and Sony Pictures Entertainment, where she oversaw global liquidity planning for a $7-billion media portfolio and advised on high-value M&A and financing strategies.

Since arriving at CB&T in 2021, Stall has led the bank’s expansion into the entertainment sector, underwriting nearly $1 billion in film, TV and music deals. A first-generation college graduate, she mentors early-career professionals and speaks regularly at institutions including UCLA, USC and Michigan State. Her ability to bridge the worlds of banking and Hollywood has made her a trusted advisor to clients navigating complex creative and financial landscapes.

Stanton “Larry” STEIN Russ August & Kabat

Partner & Head of Media and Entertainment Group

Stanton “Larry” Stein is a partner at Russ August & Kabat and head of the firm’s media and entertainment group.

A litigator with over five decades of experience, he represents high-profile artists, influencers and entertainment companies in disputes involving copyright, profit participation, privacy and publicity. Stein’s clients have included Drake, Post Malone, the Estate of Donna Summer and Grade A Productions. He was among the first to challenge studio accounting practices, reshaping how profit participants negotiate with vertically integrated media entities. He serves on several nonprofit boards, including Public Counsel and the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research. Stein’s work has earned recognition from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Billboard, Best Lawyers and the Daily Journal.

Jenifer WALLIS Munck Wilson Mandala, LLP | Chair of Entertainment Practice

Jenifer Wallis is chair of the entertainment practice at Munck Wilson Mandala, LLP and a key leader in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Since joining in 2019, she has driven strategic growth through client development, lateral recruitment and mentorship. Her hybrid practice spans litigation and transactional work, advising entertainment, beauty and tech clients on IP, production, business formation and licensing.

Previously a co-chair of the IP practice at a prominent L.A. firm, Wallis also ran her own firm in Alabama. She currently serves as outside general counsel to several production companies and has helped develop key relationships with clients, including Nexstar Media and Getaround. A founding member of Chief’s L.A. chapter and a board member of Charlie’s Acres, she is also a leader in advancing gender equity – her office now has the highest percentage of female attorneys firmwide.

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JaHan WANG City National Bank

Head of Entertainment and Sports Banking

JaH an Wang is the executive vice president and head of entertainment and sports banking at City National Bank. With more than 30 years in banking and nearly two decades at City National, he oversees a national team that delivers tailored financing and advisory services to clients in film, television, sports, Broadway, music and Latin entertainment. Wang previously served as East Coast regional manager, leading offices in New York, Miami, Nashville and Atlanta. Before joining City National in 2007, he held positions at JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. A member of the bank’s executive leadership and senior management teams, he also serves on the board of the Geffen Playhouse and the board of SAG-AFTRA.

David Weise, founding partner of David Weise & Associates, a division of NKSFB, built his firm from the ground up after decades of experience in business management across the entertainment industry.

With a client base spanning music, television, film and sports, he is known for structuring financial strategies that benefit interconnected clients across sectors.

Weise began his career in accounting before transitioning to business management in the early 1990s, steadily growing his clientele and eventually launching his own firm in 1999. In 2005, he formed David Weise & Associates, now part of NKSFB, which has become a trusted name in the industry. Over 35 years in practice, he has built strong industry relationships and earned recognition from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Billboard.

David WEISE David Weise & Associates, A Division of NKSFB

Founding Partner

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LA TIMES STUDIOS

ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS VISIONARIES

Ashley R. YEARGAN

Max WELLMAN

Russ August & Kabat

Partner, Co-Chair of Entertainment & Media

Venable LLP

Partner

As chair of Ve n a b l e ’ s L o s Angeles litigation department, Max Wellman rep resents leading figures in entertainment and business while also guiding the firm’s broader strategic litigation efforts. He advises clients, including talent, production companies and celebrity-backed brands, on litigation, transactions and crisis management. Wellman serves as outside general counsel to firms such as Entertainment 360 and advises Creative Artists Agency on emerging legal issues involving artificial intelligence. Recent representations include Katherine Heigl, Andrew Schulz and Snoop Dogg in defamation and IP matters. Wellman is known for managing disputes involving copyright, publicity rights and complex commercial issues, while also mentoring young attorneys within the firm. Recognized by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, he has held leadership roles in the Jewish National Fund and the Downtown Los Angeles Bar Association.

A longtime leader in entertainment accounting, Anita Wu is the managing director at GHJ, where she oversees complex profit participation audits for major studios and networks. For nearly 30 years, she has advised clients such as Walt Disney Pictures, NBCUniversal and CBS, ensuring financial accuracy and transparency in high-stakes royalty matters. A CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner, Wu is a frequent speaker for the International Film and Television Alliance and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Her commitment to equity and mentorship led her to co-found GHJ’s Women’s Empowerment Cohort, and she currently serves on the firm’s DEIA Steering Committee.

Anita WU GHJ

Managing Director

Munck Wilson Mandala congratulates Jenifer Wallis for being named a 2025 Entertainment Business Visionary by LA Times Studios. jwallis@munckwilson.com 310.601.1105

We are the difference | munckwilson.com Los Angeles | Dallas | Austin | Houston | Waco | South Florida | Orlando

Ashley R. Yeargan serves as partner and co-chair of the entertainment and media group at Russ August & Kabat, where she is widely regarded as a rising force in litigation and transactional work. She represents top producers, musicians and media companies in copyright, IP and talent-related matters. Her work includes defending Black Label Media, advising Simon Cowell’s Syco and managing day-to-day litigation for Drake. Yeargan also represents clients such as Tokyo Broadcasting System, Jon Taffer and 818 Tequila. She is widely recognized by The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Variety and Super Lawyers and has earned a reputation within the firm as a mentor and leader. Over 16 years in practice, she has become a trusted advisor to major figures in music, film and international media.

Sophia K. YEN Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP | Partner

From multimillion-dollar acquisitions to high-profile film finance deals, Sophia K. Yen, partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP is a key figure in shaping the future of independent entertainment. She advises clients including Pophouse Entertainment, FilmRise, Heartbeat, AMC and The Pokémon Company on major entertainment and M&A transactions.

Recent deals include KISS’ catalog acquisition, the AMC– Taylor Swift distribution model and the capital raise for Kevin Hart’s production company. Yen also advises a network of private investors on independent film strategy and has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and CAPE, where she was named 2024 Dealmaker of the Year. A frequent speaker at SXSW, AFM and UCLA, she champions equity in entertainment through Sundance Catalyst and serves on the boards of Asia Society Southern California and the UCLA Entertainment Symposium.

Ratings Report p 58

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by Stephanie Jones

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Wh y Ju goe dy B s o lum ut o e n f st eve p5 6 yle r

The Industry Page to Screen

‘Forever’ creator explains Judy Blume’s lasting power

W

HEN MARA BROCK AKIL WAS A LITTLE GIRL, she voraciously read Judy Blume. Looking back, she sees her obsession as the start of her becoming a writer. ¶ So when Akil heard that Blume was allowing her work to be translated to the screen, she was ready: “My little girl hand just shot up, ‘I want to do that!’ ” says Akil. ¶ She adds that while this generation’s youth can search the internet for information — and, sometimes, misinformation — Blume was her own trusted source. ¶ “The Information Age linked us and let us see things that we weren’t able to see or know, and Judy was that for us,” says Akil. “Judy

Mara Brock Akil.

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was writing from a place that was really grounded and gave full humanity to young people and their lives. She took their lives seriously.”

Akil has channeled her affection for Blume’s work into a new adaptation of the author’s 1975 novel “Forever...,” which premiered in May on Netflix. Focused on two teens falling in love, the book contains sex scenes that placed it on banned lists from its inception — and Blume, whose work offers frank discussion of subjects like masturbation and menstruation, remains no stranger to banned book lists, despite selling more than 90 million books worldwide.

But as censorship ramps up again, Blume has become something of a hot commodity in Hollywood. In addition to the documentary “Judy Blume Forever,” a feature film based on her novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” was released in 2023, an adaptation of “Summer Sisters” is in development at Hulu and an animated film based on “Superfudge” is in the works at Disney+.

Akil’s “Forever,” set in 2018 Los Angeles, stars Michael Cooper Jr. and Lovie Simone as the teenage leads — though the roles are gender-swapped from the novel. In 2020, while Akil was developing the adaptation, she tried to think of who the most vulnerable person is in society.

“I posit that the Black boy is the most vulnerable,” she says. “My muse is my oldest son, and through the portal of him I got to go into the generation and just really start to look at what was going on.”

While working on the project, she realized there are few depictions of boys and young men whose story is anchored in love, rather than relegating love to a side plot. “Mentally, emotionally, physically — they too deserve to fall in love and be desired and have someone fall in love with them,” she says. “And for Keisha — his honesty was attractive to her. How often do we ever really see that level of vulnerability be the leading guy?”

E L I ZA B E T H MORRIS NETFLIX

Story by Lorena O’Neil

E M M A F EIL

Mara Brock Akil on adapting one of the author’s most beloved novels for the digital age and why her work still resonates today

‘THERE’S A LOT OF REAL FEAR OUT THERE AND REAL TOUGH CHOICES THAT PARENTS ARE GOING THROUGH.’ Mara Brock Akil, “Forever” showrunner

E LIZ A B E TH M OR R IS N ET FL IX

EMM A F E I L

HILARY B R O N WY N G A Y LE N ET FLIX

In true Blume style, Akil also incorporated a central issue affecting people today — technology.

“The phone is a big character in the show, because there’s a lot of duality to the phone,” she says.

Throughout the series, the characters use phones to connect and disconnect via blocked messages, lost voicemails and unfinished texts. In the premiere, the drama revolves around the dreaded disappearing ellipsis — that feeling when you can see someone typing and then it stops.

Akil laughs when I bring it up: “At any age, that ellipsis will kick your butt.”

And when you add sex into the mix, everything becomes more charged. “The phone in the modern times is an extension of pleasure in sexuality, when used in a trusting way, and then it can be weaponized,” says Akil. “It can be so damaging to this generation’s future at a time in which mistakes are inherent in their development.”

It’s this keen awareness that the mistakes haven’t changed but the consequences have that grounds Akil’s version of “Forever.” “There’s a lot of real fear out

there and real tough choices that parents are going through,” says Akil. “And in this era of mistakes, kids can make a mistake and die by exploring drugs or —” She stops herself. “I get very emotional about the state of young people and their inability to make a mistake,” she says, “because I think most young people are actually making good choices.”

Akil says Blume and her family have seen the episodes more than once and told the showrunner she really enjoyed them. Akil remembers first meeting Blume.

“I was nervous. I wanted to be seen

by her,” she says. “I fangirled out and she allowed it and then was, like, sit your soul down. We had a conversation, and it felt destined and magical. I was grateful that she listened, and it allowed me to come to the table saying, ‘I know how to translate this.’ ” I ask Akil why she thinks Blume’s work continues to resonate, lasting for decades in its original form and spawning new projects to attract the next generation of viewers and, hopefully, readers.

“She’s relevant because she dared to tell us the truth,” says Akil. “And the truth is forever.”

↑ Lovie Simone, top, as Keisha Clark in Netflix’s “Forever.”

Michael Cooper Jr. stars as Justin Edwards, Keisha’s love interest.

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The Industry Ratings Report

50 years after Marshal Matt Dillon’s last draw, ‘Gunsmoke’ is a hit again The long-running western starring James Arness as a straight-shooting lawman is finding new audiences on Peacock, Paramount+ and Pluto TV

↗ James Arness, left, Amanda Blake, Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone in “Gunsmoke.”

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W

HEN

THE

CLASSIC

western drama “Gunsmoke” finished its 20year run on CBS in 1975, Los Angeles Times critic Cecil Smith made a bold prediction.

“I have the feeling that the first moon colony we establish will be watching ‘I Love Lucy,’ ” Smith wrote. “And probably ‘Gunsmoke.’ ” We’re not quite there on the colonization front, but Smith’s prognostication on viewing habits is right on track.

“Gunsmoke,” the western drama starring James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, has twice this year ranked among Nielsen’s top 10 list of most-streamed acquired series alongside “Family Guy,” “NCIS” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” The program scored 646 million minutes viewed for the week of March 3-9 and 570 million for the week of April 28-May 4.

“Gunsmoke,” which is owned by Paramount Global, was recently added to NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock. It has also been a staple of Paramount+. But it gets the bulk of its audience from Pluto TV, Paramount Global’s free advertising-supported streaming service.

The enduring success of the series, set in the frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, demonstrates how every new evolution of video consumption can unlock the value of vintage titles. Since wrapping production 50 years ago, “Gunsmoke” has never gone away, finding fans on cable, home video formats and retro broadcast TV channels such as MeTV before it was discovered by the streaming generation.

“If there’s a great show, people will seek it out wherever it is,” said Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, which has carried “Gunsmoke” on MeTV since 2006. The network’s daytime airing of the show regularly attracts more than 600,000 viewers.

“Gunsmoke” started as a radio drama on CBS in 1952 with William Conrad voicing the lead role. The series transitioned to television in 1955 as a half-hour show with Arness taking over as Dillon at the urging

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of his pal John Wayne, who turned down the role.

“Gunsmoke” became an immediate hit, ranking as television’s most-watched series in four of its first five seasons and expanding to an hour in 1961. It outlasted the wave of westerns that saturated network TV schedules in that era and was still landing in Nielsen’s top 10 prime-time shows in the early 1970s. When “Gunsmoke” was left off the CBS schedule in 1967 — apparently due to rising production costs — the network’s founding owner, Bill Paley, and his wife, Babe, insisted that it return.

Before “Gunsmoke,” most western TV shows were aimed at kids. “Gunsmoke” was for grown-ups. It was violent and often unflinching in depicting the harshness of life on the American frontier.

The writers and producers respected the show’s period setting but also had a feel for the zeitgeist. Episodes from the early 1960s, which often featured a young Burt Reynolds as a half-Comanche blacksmith in Dodge City, play like allegories about racism as the civil rights movement was simmering.

The show had remarkable consistency as Arness and Milburn Stone, who played Doc, were in their roles for the entire run.

Amanda Blake, who played saloon proprietor Kitty Russell, appeared in 19 seasons.

(Fans still debate whether the Miss Kitty and Dillon characters were an item.)

Sabin believes “Gunsmoke” may be seeing an uptick in viewing as audiences tend to look to familiarity and comfort during times of uncertainty. “Gunsmoke” also provides a hero with a strong moral compass.

“Matt Dillon represents a lot of what we don’t have right now,” Sabin said.

Dan Cohen, chief content licensing content officer for Paramount Global and president of Republic Pictures, said he isn’t surprised by the resilience of “Gunsmoke,” as the audience for westerns is deeply loyal, even outside the U.S. The series currently airs in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Israel.

Cohen said the show has likely gotten a boost from the popularity of “Yellowstone” and its spinoffs, which Paramount Global also sells around the world.

“There is a halo effect that westerns are seeing internationally,” Cohen said.

“When we license ‘Yellowstone,’ it leads to the conversation of, ‘Do you have anything else kind of like it?’ ‘Gunsmoke’ is our answer.”

CBS

Story by Stephen Battaglio

Writers June 17, 2025

P R IM E VI D EO

Story by Daron James

One Shot “I wanted this to be something that would have been hanging on my bedroom wall,” says senior visual effects supervisor Jason Smith about the heroic depiction of King Durin III (Peter Mullan) sacrificing himself to a fiery monster during the climactic Season 2 finale of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The immortalizing moment, which follows a tearful goodbye between father and son, drew inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien’s description of the Balrog as a being of “shadow and flame.” “We didn’t want to ruin the poetry of Tolkien’s writing by showing too much. He leaves space for your mind to help tell the story in a way that you will find compelling, so we tried to do that,” explains Smith. A mixture of milky blacks and crimson hues brought the photorealistic scene together, the contrast in color elevating the nightmarish image where every detail, down to the white-hot flames and lava-red horns, was designed to captivate the viewer. “The first thing we wanted is for people to feel the emotional journey of the story,” says Smith. “Then we leaned into the symbolism while maintaining realism. You’ll notice the creature is a creature of shadow and flame.”

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Left to right: Kate Hudson (“Running Point”), Paul W. Downs (“Hacks”), Bridget Everett (“Somebody Somewhere”), Nathan Lane (“Mid-Century Modern”), Lisa Ann Walter (“Abbott Elementary”) and David Alan Grier (“St. Denis Medical”).

Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2025

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