Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hire Disney exec as Head of Unscripted
Team Sussex gets ANOTHER new hire: Prince Harry and Meghan enlist former Disney+ exec to create nonfiction projects for their multi-million-dollar Netflix deal – months after bringing on a Hollywood producer
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s company Archewell Productions has hired LA-based Princeton graduate Chanel Pysnik as its new Head of Unscripted
- Pysnik most recently worked as the Director of International Content at Disney+, where she ‘oversaw its unscripted series and documentaries for non-US markets’
- At Disney, she worked with David Beckham on his original series Save Our Squad – which has not yet been released
- Prior to landing her role at Disney, Pysnik – who studied sociology at Princeton – worked at CNN for close to six years, having moved there from The CW
- News of the company’s latest hire comes just two weeks after it was revealed that Meghan, 39, will executive produce an animated series for Netflix
- The show, called Pearl, is fictional and will therefore not be part of Pysnik’s slate of work – however Harry’s Invictus Games documentary could well be
- Harry, 36, and Meghan have yet to release any projects as part of their Netflix deal, which they inked in 2020 and which is though to be worth around $100m
- In March, the Sussexes announced that they had hired
Meet Team Sussex’s latest member: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have hired former Disney+ executive Chanel Pysnik to head up nonfiction content for Archewell Productions
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have added yet another new hire to their growing roster of Archewell employees: a former Disney+ executive who has been brought on to oversee their production company’s unscripted projects for their incredibly lucrative partnership with Netflix.
News of the couple’s new hire was revealed by Deadline on Friday – just two weeks after they confirmed their second project for Netflix, an animated series created in collaboration with Elton John’s husband David Furnish, which Meghan, 39, will executive produce.
However it is likely that LA-based Princeton graduate Pysnik will have little to do with the animated show – which focuses on the adventures of a ’12-year-old girl who finds inspiration in influential women’ – and will instead concentrate on boosting the couple’s roster of unscripted and nonfiction projects.
This could well mean that she will play a key role in the couple’s first Netflix project – Heart of Invictus, a documentary series about the Invictus Games starring Prince Harry, 36 – which was announced in April of this year and would fall under Pysnik’s remit as Head of Unscripted.
Helping hand: News of Harry and Meghan’s latest hire comes just four months after they signed up Hollywood producer Ben Browning to lead their production company
According to Pysnik’s LinkedIn page, she most recently served as the Director of International Content for Disney+, where she oversaw the streaming site’s ‘unscripted series and documentaries for non-US markets’ for 17 months – before making the move over to Archewell.
Prior to landing the role at Disney, Pysnik spent almost six years working at CNN on the network’s original series, having moved there from The CW, where her focus was ‘alternative programming’.
According to Deadline, Pysnik will work under one of Archewell Productions’ other new hires: Hollywood producer Ben Browning, who was brought on board in March of this year to run the couple’s fledgling film and TV company.
On her LinkedIn page, Pysnik boasts that she has a ‘proven track record of building creative strategies within global media corporations’ – something that will no doubt have appealed hugely to Meghan and Harry as they attempt to make a name for themselves in Hollywood.
Her personal bio adds: ‘[Chanel] is skilled in premium unscripted development & production, brand growth, and both English- & local-language series & films.
‘Chanel has worked for top streaming, news, and broadcast networks targeting US and international audiences around the globe.’
In the ten months since they announced their deal with Netflix – which is rumored to have netted the couple up to $100 million – the Sussexes have announced just two projects for the streaming site, neither of which have yet to be released.
Progress has also been slow as far as their Spotify podcast is concerned; the couple has only released 35 minutes of content in the eight months since they signed their contract, which sources claimed was worth around $20 million.
As with their production company, the Sussexes brought in a seasoned industry expert to try and boost audio efforts, hiring producer Rebecca Sanaes as Archewell Productions’ Head of Audio earlier this month.
Prior to landing her new role, Sanaes was previously employed as lead podcast producer for Pivot, New York Magazine and Vox Media’s show hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway and will report to Archewell’s head of content, Ben Browning, when she joins the company in August.
