Power Shift
September 23, 2025
Welcome to our second annual “50 Women to Watch in the Digital Entertainment Business” issue, in which our editors profile the 50 women executives they believe will have the greatest impact on our industry in the coming year.
This year’s list has far more newcomers than we expected, joining such prominent veterans as Bela Bajaria of Netflix, Hilary Hoffman of Universal Pictures, Lexine Wong of Sony Pictures, Alanna Powers of Paramount, and Andrea Downing of PBS Distribution.
One of these newcomers is a very familiar face: Cindy Holland, the new chair of streaming at Paramount. Holland, of course, was instrumental in steering Netflix toward original content. She joined the company in 2002 and ultimately rose to head of original content, a position from which she was unceremoniously bounced in 2020.
At Paramount, she’s pulling out her old playbook. In a press conference on Aug. 13, the day after the media giant’s sale to Skydance closed, Holland said Paramount+ will increase original content production around series rather than movies, just as Netflix did when she was calling the shots. She said the goal is to make Paramount+ “a daily habit for all audiences.”
Also new to our list are Kim Kelleher and Kim Granito, chief commercial officer and chief marketing officer, respectively, at AMC Networks. The parent of such popular streaming platforms as AMC+, Acorn TV and Shudder posted healthy gains in both subscriber counts and revenue in the most-recent quarter, at a time when other services are losing subs and struggling to contain costs.
In recognition of the important role technology plays in streaming, we added Netflix chief technology officer Elizabeth Stone, who played a key role in Netflix’s recent rollout of new viewer features. Among them is a new generative AI search feature on iOS that lets subscribers search for shows and movies using natural, conversational phrases such as “I want something funny and upbeat.”
Also selected for her tech skills is Danae Kokenos, head of technology innovation at Amazon MGM Studios, overseeing strategy around emerging technologies such as AI and how it can improve content creation from development through delivery and distribution.
Other newcomers this year include Naivasha Dean, SVP of content programming and insights at Tubi, the free ad-supported streamer that recently reached 100 million monthly active users and generated more than $1 billion in revenue for parent Fox Corp.; Julie Dansker and Jonitha Keymoore, key members of the new executive team at Radial Entertainment, a supergroup of independent distribution formed through the merger of Shout! Studios and FilmRise; and Briana Larsen, who leads global partnerships across smart TVs, pay-TV platforms, and in-car entertainment at Xperi.
All told, we have more than two dozen newcomers, many of them filling vacancies created by executive churn or other reasons. Among the high-profile departees: Jennifer Salke, whose eight-year run as head of Amazon MGM Studios came to a sudden end in March; Kelly Campbell, who exited the presidency of Peacock in January; Dametra Johnson-Marletti, whose storied 24-year career with Microsoft Corp., where she had risen to corporate VP for digital gaming sales, ended in June; and Erin Calhoun, the top communications executive for Paramount streaming, who left her position in September 2024, just one week after she made our inaugural “50 Women to Watch in the Digital Entertainment Business” list.
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