Former Shine Int’l & Electus CEO Chris Grant launches distribution firm Osmosis Global

Chris Grant

Chris Grant, the former Electus CEO and president of Shine International, has launched a new distribution company  and named a fellow Electus alum as its president.

Osmosis Global is backed by investor and entrepreneur Marc Pierce, with Grant becoming CEO having previously been an advisor at Team Whistle and leading Barry Diller-backed Electus before that.

He had also led Shine International, exiting in 2011, and is joined at Osmosis by fellow Shine and Electus alum Eli Shibley, who becomes president & head of sales.

Shibley was most recently running production label Major Content, having left his position leading international sales for Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios in 2021. The latter was acquired by Candle Media in 2022.

Pierce has backed companies including Montana-based Warm Springs Productions (Mountain Men, How America Works With Mike Rowe), alongside consumer product and investment firms.

Financing focus

Osmosis will represent series, limited series and feature documentaries for global distribution, as well as fully financing and/or deficit-financing original programming across both scripted and unscripted.

The company is set to make its international bow at MIPCOM next week, with the catalogue including series from Fox Nation’s Yellowstone One-Fifty With Kevin Costner from Warm Springs Productions and A History Of the World In Six Glasses from Play House Studios.

Other shows on the slate range from The CW’s upcoming Totally Funny Kids and Totally Funny Animals from V10 Entertainment and Vin Di Bona Productions, to Mike Rowe’s Somebody’s Gotta Do It from MRW Productions and feature doc Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story from Roc Nation.

Grant said the company had been launched because of a “permanent shift in the way programming is conceived, produced and monetised.”

He added: “Marc and I teamed up to create Osmosis so we could lean into our respective strengths in production, distribution and brand partnerships, and take the big financial swings that have always been the lifeblood of original content.

“We’re confident that our model and our independence can fill a need for both buyers and sellers, and we’re looking forward to connecting with our friends and colleagues in Cannes.”