Leading media company, Buzzfeed, announced that it has appointed Lauren Dolgen, a veteran creative executive with more than 20-years experience across MTV and Vice, as Head of BuzzFeed Studios.
In her role, Dolgen will oversee development of original productions for BuzzFeed partners across TV, SVOD, and film, as well as the company’s growing slate of original digital series. She’ll be responsible for creating and developing series concepts drawing from IP and talent from across BuzzFeed, including BuzzFeed News and its lifestyle portfolio under BuzzFeed Media Brands. Dolgen will be based in Los Angeles and will report directly to Jonah Peretti, founder and CEO of BuzzFeed.
Here is the full text of Jonah Peretti’s internal memo announcing Dolgen’s hire:
“Hi BuzzFeeders,
I’m excited to share that Lauren Dolgen — a veteran creative executive with a long track record of success at MTV and Vice — will join us May 21 as our new Head of BuzzFeed Studios.
Lauren joins us from Viceland where she served as Head of West Coast Development, overseeing West Coast production and development for the network. In that role, she drew from across the Vice portfolio to develop series concepts, collaborated with external production partners, and worked closely on projects with the company’s international offices across Australia, Canada, and the UK. Before Vice, Lauren was EVP, Series Development and Head of Unscripted Programming at MTV, capping a nearly 20-year career at the network in which she had a hand in some of its biggest reality series, from ‘Jackass’ to ‘The Real World to ‘Are You The One?’ to ‘Teen Mom.’
“When I met Lauren, she struck me as the perfect candidate for the job — really smart in her thinking about generating and developing ideas, insightful about working with talent, and super knowledgeable about production management. Her sensibility is also very BuzzFeed, in that she loves pop culture and tackling not-so-serious subjects in really smart, relevant ways. She created ’16 and Pregnant’ and ‘Teen Mom’ — one of the most successful and social impactful reality franchises in history — after reading an article about teen pregnancy. And at Viceland she most recently oversaw ‘Hate Thy Neighbor,’ which examines the Alt-Right movement through the lens of an English comedian.
“In her role, Lauren will oversee all of our external and internal development, creating and developing new series concepts from IP and talent across BuzzFeed, including BuzzFeed News and the lifestyle portfolio under BuzzFeed Media Brands. She’ll be based in our L.A. office and Rachel Etheredge, Hieu Ho and Tal Shachar will report directly to her. Lauren will report directly to me. With projects in production or development across broadcast, cable, SVOD and film, and our biggest slate of original digital series to date hitting this year, there is a ton of potential in our Studio business that we’re just beginning to unlock. I’m excited to see where we take it under Lauren’s leadership.
“Thanks for joining me in welcoming Lauren, and for all you do for BuzzFeed!
Jonah”
