Mo Abudu makes The Hollywood Reporters List again

October 18, 2024

Mo Abudu is the Only African on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Most Powerful Women in International Television” 2024 List.

Mo Abudu; the only African on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Most Powerful Women in International Television” 2024 List.

Mo Abudu, the CEO of EbonyLife Media shared her excitement on Instagram, as she has once again been recognized as one of the 2024 Most Powerful Women in International Television by The Hollywood Reporter.

Note that she was earlier recognized as one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Global Television” by The Hollywood Reporter in 2013. In October 2021, The Hollywood Reporter once again named her among the 20 most powerful women in global entertainment, making this her third recognition from the same outlet.

This was what the magazine entry wrote about her;

Abudu likes to joke that when she decided, in her mid-40s, to change careers from being an executive at oil giant ExxonMobil to launching her own media empire. “most people thought it was a midlife crisis.” Nearly two decades later, the oft-styled “Queen of African media” has proved the doubters wrong. Now 60, Abudu’s influence continues to grow. Her conglomerate EbonyLife has teamed with African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) to finance and produce African content for international distribution. Looking to the future,

In her Instagram post, she expressed hope for a future where more African women are celebrated for their contributions to global storytelling. She emphasized the need to move beyond the “tokenism” surrounding Black content. Highlighting that shows with Black characters often receive limited opportunities compared to their white counterparts.

Although this year’s list comes during significant changes in the global television industry, it makes the leadership of women like Mo Abudu essential.

Alongside Mo Abudu were also other notable women:

Zeinab Abu Alsamh, GM, MBC Studios (Saudi Arabia)
Maria Pia Ammirati, Director, Rai Fiction (Italy)
Javiera Balmaceda, Head of Originals Latin America, Canada and Australia, Amazon Studios (Latin America)
Rola Bauer, Head of Pan-English scripted SVOD TV, development and series, Amazon (Germany)
Renata Brandão, CEO, Conspiração Filmes (Brazil)
Carol Choi, Managing Director Japan, exec VP APAC int’l market/local original productions, Disney (Japan)
Jane Featherstone, Co-founder/chief creative officer, Sister (U.K.)
Verónica Fernández, Director content originals series and films, Spain & Portugal, Netflix (Spain)
Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO, The Mediapro Studio (Spain)
Cécile Frot-Coutaz, CEO, Sky Studios /chief content officer, Sky (U.K.)
Helen Gregory, Joint Managing Director, See-Saw Films (U.K.)
Jay Hunt, (Industry Leader) Creative director of worldwide video, Europe, Apple (U.K.)
Emiko Iijima, VP anime production, Crunchyroll (Japan)
Minyoung Kim, VP content for Asia Pacific (ex-India), Netflix (South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/Southeast Asia/Australia/New Zealand)
Miky Lee, Vice-chair, CJ Group (South Korea)
Marie Leguizamo, Managing director, Banijay Mexico & U.S. Hispanic (Latin America)
Anna Marsh, CEO, StudioCanal; Deputy CEO, Canal+ Group (France)
Carolyn McCall, CEO, ITV (U.K.)
Anne Mensah, VP U.K. content, Netflix (U.K.)
Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer, BBC (U.K.)
Cathy Payne, CEO, Banijay Rights (U.K.)
Gabriela Rodríguez, Head of company, Esperanto Filmoj (U.K.)
Julie Roy, CEO, Telefilm Canada (Canada)
Monika Shergill, VP of content, Netflix India (India)
Prerna Singh, CEO, Bhansali Productions (India)
Julia Stuart, Director, Sky Original Film (U.K.)
Karen Thorne-Stone, President/CEO, Ontario Creates (Canada)
Jane Tranter, Co-founder/CEO, Bad Wolf (U.K.)
Jane Turton, CEO, All3Media (U.K.)
Yang Xiaopei, Founder/CEO, Xixi Pictures (China)