Lauren Zalaznick
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CURRICULUM VITAE LAUREN ZALAZNICK Lauren Zalaznick has devoted her career in media to transforming the cultural landscape, from her start as an award-winning independent feature film producer to her current role as a senior strategic advisor to some of the leading digital and media companies in the world. The hallmark of her corporate career has been leading the business growth of some of the strongest television and digital assets in media, capped by her most recent operating role as Chairman, Entertainment & Digital Networks at Comcast/NBCUniversal. Today, she consults for some of the world’s leading digital & media companies through her Senior Advisory role at BCG, along with project-based consultancies at media entities such as The Sundance Institute, The Chernin Group, Fuse Media, and The Weather Channel. She holds senior advisory relationships with a range of top-tier digital companies such as Refinery29, Medium, Atlas Obscura, and Fatherly. She recently produced the feature-length documentary, “Generation Start-Up,” currently streaming on Netflix. And she is an Executive Producer for the hit Fox Broadcast Network game show, Beat Shazam, which will have its Season 2 premiere in May, 2018. In her spare time, she curates the influential weekly newsletter The LZ Sunday Paper, for which she culls the most important news of the week by and about women in business, media, and pop culture. From 2004 to 2014, Zalaznick held progressive positions of leadership within Comcast NBCUniversal, leading the Entertainment and Digital Networks portfolio that included Bravo Media, Oxygen Media, the Style Network, the Telemundo broadcast network, as well as digital assets Fandango and Daily Candy. Revenue and ratings for each of the networks consistently outperformed the marketplace. The networks’ forays into digital content were viewed as ground-breaking and industry-leading. Under her leadership, Bravo Media grew from a niche network into a globally recognized business powerhouse and a leading voice in pop culture for shows such as Project Runway, Top Chef, The Real Housewives, Million Dollar Listings, Flipping Out, and Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens: Live. The network garnered countless awards including the first-ever Emmy nomination and win for a cable network in the primetime category of Competitive Reality, for Project Runway and Top Chef, respectively which has gone on to be nominated every year since. Project Runway was also awarded a Peabody, Zalaznick’s second. Her television career started at Viacom in 1994, as Vice President, On-Air Promotion, VH1. She later oversaw Original Programming and Development, launching the network’s highest-rated, award-winning, and most buzz-worthy shows including the breakthrough first- ever series for the network, Pop Up Video; the critically acclaimed Storytellers; and awards show franchises Divas: Live! and The VH1 Fashion Awards. Returning to her film roots, she served as Executive Producer of the beloved 2001 Paramount feature film “Zoolander.” Zalaznick launched her career in independent film. From 1984 to 1994, she produced a number of groundbreaking feature films including the Cannes and Sundance Festival award-winning film Kids, directed by Larry Clark; Todd Haynes’ Poison and Safe, starring Julianne Moore; Tom Kalin’s Swoon, and Jim McKay’s Girls Town. Zalaznick herself has been widely recognized as an industry shape-shifter and innovator, and has received many honors for her achievements. Aside from her Peabody, Emmy, BDA, and Webby Award nominations and wins, she was the youngest person ever to be awarded the Brandon Tartikoff Lifetime Achievement Award by NATPE; the year prior, she was inducted into to the Broadcasting & Cable Hall Of Fame. Time magazine named Zalaznick one of the “Time 100: World’s Most Influential People,” and Vanity Fair named her to their “New Establishment” list; earlier, she was the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story. She delivered a TED talk that has been viewed close to a million times. Currently, she is a director of The Nielsen Company; GoPro; Critical Content, and Shazam, which is set to be acquired by Apple upon the completion of the regulatory process later this year. Zalaznick is a Trustee Emerita of Brown University, from which she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. .