Liz Gateley, former head of improvement, originals at Spotify Studios, has left the corporate to launch Damsel Media.
The brand new firm is a tv, movie, direct-to-consumer and digital media manufacturing firm that will probably be centered on Gen Z. Earlier than working at Spotify, Gateley was head of programming at Lifetime.
Gateley has created content material together with Laguna Seashore, The Hills, 16 & Pregnant, Teen Mother, Teen Wolf, Surviving R. Kelly, Studying to Skateboard in a Warfare Zone (If You’re a Woman), which received the Oscar in 2020 for documentary quick, and developed the scripted sequence You.
Gateley joined Spotify in February 2019 as a member of the unique podcast studios workforce. She purchased Wind of Change, a co-production with Pineapple and Crooked Media, as an unique authentic for Spotify, which received the 2020 Webby for greatest podcast of the yr.
She oversaw Spotify’s Warner Bros./DC partnership deal which launched podcasts together with Batman Unburied, which was tailored into eight languages and launched in 9 international locations and reached #1 on the Spotify podcast charts.
Extra sequence within the partnership included Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Thoughts, with Christina Ricci, and The Riddler: Secrets and techniques within the Darkish, starring Hasan Minhaj. Gateley additionally labored alongside Kim Kardashian on her podcast The System: The Case of Kevin Keith.
Gateley led Spotify’s current push into video and developed What Now? With Trevor Noah at present in its second season. Gateley additionally led the creation of Spotify Footage, which adapts podcasts and IP from the platform into a visible medium, launching RapCaviar Presents as a documentary.
“I’m so grateful for the previous 6 years at Spotify, not solely due to the proficient folks I started working with, however the great quantity of studying whereas growing tasks with unimaginable creators inside a fast-growing, dynamic firm,” Gateley stated. “Now it’s time for me to return to my love of longform storytelling and my ardour for making premium content material for younger audiences with Damsel Media.”
Gateley has signed with CAA and with Tara Senior & Todd Weinstein at Weinstein/Senior. Damsel Media has partnered with 32 Flavors and Haymaker East on the corporate’s first two tasks, with casting underway on each.