OWN Hires Hunter to Head Programming
Los Ange
les-based OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network continues to hire in preparation for its planned Q1 2010 launch, appointing Jamila Hunter as head of programming.
Hunter comes to OWN from NBC Entertainment, where she was senior vice president of alternative and digital programming. Hunter worked at NBC twice, but had been back just since 2008, working on such projects as Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming reality series The Marriage Ref, the U.S. adaptation of the BBC’s Have I Got News for You and the summer series, Great American Road Trip. I guess when Forbes’ second most powerful celebrity comes calling, programming executives go walking.
Prior to her return to NBC, Hunter was vice president of comedy development at 20th Century Fox Television from 2005 to 2008. Before that, she was VP of development and production at Bravo, working on such shows as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Project Greenlight, Blowout, Significant Others and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. (side note: If Kathy Griffin’s life is really lived on the D list, why on earth do I have to hear so much about her?)
Hunter graduated from Atlanta’s Spelman College with a B.A. in English. Apparently some English majors figure out something productive to do with that degree. I’m still working on it.
