NBCU Partners With Telemundo To Increase Hispanic Female Directors In Scripted TV

14.03.2022 - 21:07 / deadline.com

EXCLUSIVE: NBCU Launch, the umbrella brand that houses the comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across NBCU’s television portfolio, has forged a new partnership with Telemundo to increase the number of Hispanic female directors in scripted television. This partnership is an extension of the Hispanic network’s award-winning corporate initiative Mujeres Imparables (Unstoppable Women).

According to the latest DGA Episodic TV Director Inclusion Report, only 2.4% of scripted series episodes were helmed by Latina directors out of more than 4,300 episodes produced in the 2019-20 season. This new partnership with Telemundo aims to address the need for more directing opportunities for this severely underrepresented community.

Starting with the upcoming 2022-23 class and thereafter, two Female Forward applicants who select the Telemundo track of the program will shadow on at least two episodes of a Telemundo scripted series, culminating in an in-season directing assignment on the same series.

“Our new partnership with Telemundo is emblematic of one of our core goals, which is to combine inclusion efforts with our sister networks and studios so that together we can create comprehensive and meaningful change,” said Jeanne Mau, Senior Vice President, TV Programming Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at NBCUniversal. “Our shared objectives with Telemundo give us a unique opportunity to place an even greater focus on Hispanic female directors. This evolution of our groundbreaking Female Forward initiative is just the beginning of our efforts to grow this underrepresented community while we also continue to focus on other marginalized groups who still desperately need opportunities in the director’s chair.”

“The numbers don’t