Client: Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby-Nason & Mike Gasparro – Executive Producers; Cinemart – Production Company
Whether on a streaming service, on broadcast TV or cable, there is a large amount of creatives and executives that made their mark on unscripted television over the last year. Despite the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became a time for new ideas and new programming — from documentaries and competition shows, to dating series and comfort viewing — to thrive.
Here, Variety celebrates the talent behind the scenes who have made the biggest impact across all formats of unscripted.
Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby-Nason, co-CEOs; Mike Gasparro, showrunner, the Cinemart
In 2021, Furst and Willoughby-Nason produced the critically acclaimed “LuLaRich” doc series, further cementing the Cinemart’s status as a top destination for premium docs — something that was evident in 2019’s massive hit “Fyre Fraud.” The Emmy-nominated company is continuing to use their platform to bring awareness to social injustices. “Knowing when you are in the right place at the right time, and what the right decisions to make about a project are and when those decisions matter the most has been the game changer,” the trio says. “Those are hard-earned skills, they come with a lot of bumps and bruises, and we wouldn’t have been able to pull any of it off without the whole team.”
Biggest change they’ve seen: “The sheer number of platforms and avenues for premium content has been the most amazing thing we have ever witnessed. When we started in the business, there were only one or two places for a doc series. Now there are over 10.”