Marie Leguizamo caught the leisure bug studying from and visiting her brother John Leguizamo on completely different units, like Home of Buggin’. From a younger age, she noticed all of the arduous work that goes into the TV exhibits and films that we watch from the consolation of our houses.
She additionally noticed that it was principally males engaged on the units and questioned the place the ladies had been. It was these moments that formed her ardour and made her say, “sure, I need to be a part of this trade.”
“I’m so grateful that I can name John my brother,” Leguizamo says. “He’s so extremely gifted and has paved the way in which for therefore many individuals on this trade. He paves his personal journey within the trade. I’ve completed mine utterly completely different.”
Although she needed to be in entrance of a digicam early on and pursued opera, Leguizamo discovered a house behind the digicam with almost 20 years in unscripted tv. In 2021, she grew to become the managing director at Banijay Mexico & US Hispanic, which focuses on creating unique content material in English and Spanish for broadcast, cable, and streamers within the Mexican and US Hispanic markets. Leguizamo oversees tasks akin to Final One Laughing and Temptation Island Mexico, amongst others.
For Leguizamo, unscripted tv captures the authenticity and feelings of actual tales. She’s seen the medium evolve from watching The Actual World and Massive Brother in highschool to now producing her personal unscripted exhibits.
“I’ve at all times been fascinated with actual tales. I’ve at all times cherished that uncooked emotion,” she explains. “I really feel privileged and fortunate that I used to be in a position to see that evolution [of unscripted] on TV and to be a part of that.”
When Banijay Mexico & US Hispanic launched in 2021, its unique focus was on the Mexico and US Hispanic markets. However Leguizamo has been in a position to produce tasks for Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The important thing for every market is authenticity.
Leguizamo surrounds herself with producers from every nation. She immerses herself within the tradition. She watches native TV. Briefly, she does the homework.
“We overlook how vital it’s to only hear, to sit down, and take all of it in,” Leguizamo says. “Illustration is vital, however principally it’s ensuring that every territory is aware of we’re making this present for them, and that the viewers is being listened to and heard.”
It’s additionally vitally vital—and one of many causes she joined the trade—for Hispanic voices and ladies’s voices to be represented not solely in entrance of the digicam but in addition behind the digicam. She’s been an advocate all through her profession and now as managing director at Banijay.
And she or he’s bored with being alone on the desk.
“There usually are not sufficient feminine CEOs. There usually are not feminine executives. There usually are not sufficient feminine heads of manufacturing firms,” she says. “We’ve a definite strategy to inform tales, and I’m discarding or discrediting different methods of telling tales, however I believe that there’s a robust perspective of storytelling from girls that’s vital to proceed to nurture.”
Leguizamo notes that whereas Banijay has sturdy feminine illustration, it’s only one firm. It’s vital to domesticate a tradition of alternative and development at in every single place. Banijay is doing its half to nurture storytellers throughout the globe with Banijay Launch.
Banijay Launch is a worldwide accelerator program that helps feminine creators with promising unscripted codecs. Within the first cycle, which launched in fall 2023 with winners introduced in March 2024, had 500-plus functions throughout 30-plus territories. Contributors are paired with ambassadors, who present mentorship all through this system on learn how to pitch their applications. Banijay announced cycle two in fall 2024.
“It’s an precise privilege to be a part of this program as a result of I like that it is a international initiative from Banijay Group,” says Leguizamo, who was an envoy for the primary cycle. “At occasions, girls will probably be like, ‘Oh, I don’t need to submit my concept since you’re going to have 100 of them.’ Nicely, then I’ve 101. So, submit it as a result of we’re going to learn it, we’re going to hearken to you, and we’re going to offer you a chance.”
So You Need to Be in Leisure?
Recommendation from Marie Leguizamo
“Don’t be scared to fail. Don’t be scared to be informed no. Don’t be afraid to suppose you need to go in a single path after which go towards one other. This trade is continually evolving. It’s OK to make errors, however don’t be afraid to be informed no. You simply maintain combat by means of these no’s as a result of ultimately it’ll be a sure.”
This can be a true embodiment of Leguizamo’s management by means of empowerment. All through her time within the trade, she’s realized that management is just not about management or main by concern. She creates an surroundings the place her workforce feels supported, valued, and challenged, and that they’re a part of the dialog.
“I at all times need to have a dialog with my workforce. I need to hear what they should say,” she says. “Why wouldn’t I hearken to you? You’re a part of my workforce. In fact, I need to have your enter.”
Listening to her workforce can also be vital for a similar causes she listens to producers in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Banijay is in Mexico, and most of her workforce is Mexican.
“It’s vital for me to have their perspective and likewise know what the tendencies are of their territory as a result of if not, I’m not going to return in and say, ‘Nicely, I do know higher than you do,’” she explains. “I discovered that my workforce works smarter, not more durable, and so they need to give 1,000 p.c. Our success has been a product of that.”
With greater than 20 years in entertainment, Leguizamo has a seat on the desk not solely in North America but in addition globally. She’s working with groups the world over on unscripted programming to raise storytelling to new heights and convey extra girls to the desk along with her.
