NBCU Launch & Telemundo team to support Hispanic female directors

Jeanne Mau

NBCU Launch, the umbrella brand that houses the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across NBCUniversal’s television portfolio, has forged a new partnership with its Telemundo network to increase the number of Hispanic female directors in scripted television.

The initiative comes as the latest DGA Episodic TV Director Inclusion Report found that 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.

The partnership, which is an extension of the Hispanic network’s corporate initiative Mujeres Imparables (Unstoppable Women), includes the introduction of a Telemundo track to its Female Forward initiative, which has provided experienced female directors an opportunity to break into episodic television over the last four years. The scripted directing program guarantees at least one in-season directing credit for its participants.

Starting with the upcoming 2022-23 class, 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.

This expansion of Female Forward coincides with Telemundo’s Mujeres Imparables (Unstoppable Women) initiative, which seeks to advance Latinas by sharing their diverse success stories, highlighting their contributions to all sectors of society and fostering solutions for the challenges that remain for their progress.

“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, SVP, 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.”