Variety Promotes Jem Aswad to Executive Editor, Music

William Earl Variety’s Actors on Actors series returns featuring the biggest stars in this year’s TV Emmys race for Season 18. The four episodes will debut on PBS SoCal on Thursday January 15th starting at 8:00 pm, followed by encores on KCET and public television stations across the country and the WORLD Channel (check local listings). All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org and the free PBS App following their premieres. Variety’s Actors on Actors issue will hit newsstands on June 7th and the conversations will start airing on Tuesday, June 6th on Variety.com and its social media channels. This year’s “Actors on Actors” lineup includes:

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Brady Torgeson and Alex Chaykin have both been named partners at APA, Variety has learned exclusively. Torgeon first joined APA’s physical production department in 2013, while Chaykin has been with the agency’s music department since 2012. According to sources, both are known for their versatility in working across multiple departments. “We are proud to have one of the top Physical Production Department’s in the industry led by an accomplished group of dedicated agents and Brady has distinguished himself among the best in the industry,” said Jim Gosnell and Jim Osborne, respectively APA’s CEO and president. “He is the rare agent that represents artists and craftspeople across almost every aspect of production, making him an expert in the field and a tremendous asset to APA. We could not be prouder to welcome him as a partner of the agency.”

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content has elevated four senior executives at the company including three within AC Studios, the premium independent film and TV production studio that sits inside Anonymous Content as well as a longtime executive in their Brand division.

Angelique Jackson United Talent Agency (UTA) has announced its latest round of promotions, with 65 employees elevated across 20 of the company’s departments. “These promotions reflect our longstanding tradition of investing in our people,” stated UTA president David Kramer, announcing the promotions. “UTA continues to aggressively expand our footprint and our offerings to clients, I’m excited to recognize our colleagues who make our exceptional service to clients possible everyday.” The global talent, entertainment, sports and advisory company promoted the employees at various levels of the company and across departments, including motion picture literary, music, unscripted television, Klutch Sports Group, production arts, UTA entertainment & culture marketing, media rights, Medialink, endorsements & voiceover, IQ, brand studio, business affairs, corporate strategy, culture & leadership, finance & accounting, fine arts, information technology, people, theatre and UTA speakers.

UTA on Tuesday morning announced 65 promotions across 20 departments, including MP Literary, Music, Unscripted Television, Klutch Sports Group, Production Arts, UTA Entertainment & Culture Marketing, Media Rights, MediaLink, Endorsements & Voiceover, IQ, Brand Studio, Business Affairs, Corporate Strategy, Culture & Leadership, Finance & Accounting, Fine Arts, Information Technology, People, Theatre, and UTA Speakers. 

EXCLUSIVE: Religion of Sports, the Emmy-winning sports media company founded by Gotham Chopra, Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, has today named Pietro Moro to the hybrid role of COO/CFO, also spotlighting the expansion of its production team with two promotions and four hirings.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Greene’s talent agency Greene Talent has elevated agents Azeem Chiba, Ethan Salter and Kiernan Mc Caffrey to shareholding partners.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As expected, Foo Fighters revealed their new drummer during a livestreamed event on Sunday: And as expected, it’s veteran session man and longtime friend Josh Freese. The band launches a massive tour — their first without drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died tragically in Colombia last year — in New Hampshire on May 24. While the band announced its intention to continue late last year, they went to great lengths not to reveal the identity of their new drummer. They played into this during the opening moments of the livestream, called “Foo Fighters: Preparing Music for Concerts,” which featured all of the members joking around with each other in their rehearsal room, with their guitars on.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Andrea Ganis, Atlantic Records’ legendary president of promotion, is leaving the company after 43 years, she announced in a message to staff today, which follows below in full. She began at the company as a secretary in 1980, became head of the department and eventually rose so high in the ranks that they invented the president of promotion title for her. In a 2020 interview with Variety looking back at her career, she said, ““My early years began with the Rolling Stones, Bette Midler, Abba, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Phil Collins, U2, Stevie Nicks and so many more, including songs that I forgot I promoted until I hear them in a store and point up and say, ‘I worked that record!,’” she laughed.  

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor New York’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment has announced the full schedule of free programming for the sixth annual New York Music Month, taking place in June with concerts, performances, industry talks and workshops, and the community-sourced calendar for users to upload free and ticketed music events happening across the five boroughs — see the full schedule at NYMusicMonth.NYC.  “This New York Music Month, with a calendar jam-packed with celebrations — like the city’s 50 th anniversary of hip-hop — the beat of New York City will be heard around the world,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “Between the free rehearsal spaces, workshops, master classes, songwriting camps, and more, there is something for everyone sprinkled throughout the five boroughs, which, as music always does, will serve to unite, educate, and entertain us.”

Just recently, it was announced that filmmaker Andrew Niccol is set to revisit his “Lord of War” film with a new sequel, aptly titled “Lords of War.” Well, before he gets going on that film and a reunion with Nicolas Cage, Niccol has another project lined up which could begin filming later this year, “I, Object.” READ MORE: ‘Lords Of War’: Nic Cage & Bill Skarsgård Teaming With Andrew Niccol On A Sequel To 2005’s ‘Lord Of War’ According to THR, Andrew Niccol is begun putting a cast together for his next film, the live-action/animation hybrid film, “I, Object.” And the new members of the cast include Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”), Karl Urban (“The Boys”), Thomasin McKenzie (“Jojo Rabbit”), and Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”).

You.In an episode of his podcast, Podcrushed, Badgley, who has been married to Kirke’s sister Domino since 2017, revealed that he asked You writer Sarah Gamble “‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?'”His request for the cutdown of the show’s raunchy sex scenes comes out of respect for his marriage. “Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me.

Ethan Shanfeld Variety garnered a record 96 nominations for the SoCal Journalism awards sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club, with nods across magazine and entertainment journalism, art and photography, video, audio, online content and social media during the 2022 calendar year. Among the nominations announced Friday were Tim Gray for print journalist of the year and Clayton Davis for online journalist of the year. In addition, Owen Gleiberman, Chris Willman and Daniel D’Addario were nominated as entertainment journalists of the year. “We are extremely proud of our newsroom for a banner year in record-breaking traffic, hard-hitting investigative journalism, profile writing and video. These nominations are a testament to the great work Variety is doing covering the entertainment industry,” said Variety co-editor-in-chiefs Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

Sometimes fear can be just as strong a motivator as love. That was the case for Showtime’s George & Tammy music producer and engineer Rachael Moore.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Seeker Music has acquired the masters and publishing catalog of Charlotte Caffey, lead guitarist and a primary songwriter of pioneering all-female group and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members the Go-Go’s. Caffey co-wrote some of the group’s biggest hits and was the sole songwriter on its signature song, “We Got the Beat.” Since its release in 1981, the song has become the group’s most successful and most-covered track. She also had a hand in writing the group’s hits “Head Over Heels,” “Vacation,” “How Much More” and “Turn to You.” Beyond her work with The Go-Go’s, Caffey has also written songs covered by such artists as Keith Urban (the country hit “But for the Grace of God”) and her Go-Go’s bandmate Belinda Carlisle, as well as in the film and TV space, where she’s written several theme songs, including for the “Clueless” TV series.

EXCLUSIVE: Buchwald has upped veteran talent agents Angelo Padilla and Marion Campbell Kammer to Senior Vice President of Talent and Vice President of Talent, respectively. Both are based in the agency’s Los Angeles office. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor New Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl faced a light release schedule during his first two quarters in office and has promised not to candy-coat the results. Although the company’s revenue was up 4% and its publishing division posted a strong quarter, the company is just beginning to emerge from that thin stretch of releases with strong performances from three recent albums from its Atlantic Records division, from Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow and Tiesto. As he did in his first earnings call, Kyncl nodded to that situation and then looked ahead to a robust release schedule for the remainder of 2023, with upcoming releases from Dua Lipa, David Guetta, Lil Uzi Vert, Burna Boy, Kelly Clarkson, Tiago PZK, Bailey Zimmerman, and others. “I’m very confident in the path forward, as we combine creative and marketing excellence with tech innovation to propel our growth,” he said.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Now that’s an entrance. The stage for Kali Uchis’ “Red Moon in Venus” tour is bathed in red-pink light, centered around an elevated platform with stairs leading up either side and archways beneath. A gradually brightening, supernova-like light fills the video screen behind it. The singer enters the stage, slowly carried by her six dancers, but obscured by the kind of giant frilly feathers you see in old movies, where a luxuriating empress is being gently fanned with them by servants. They scale the steps, gently set her down in the middle of the platform, then pull away the feathers as the crowd shrieks, revealing Uchis standing regally with her back turned, looking at the audience over her shoulder, clad in an all-red ensembled of a halter, short skirt, stockings, sleeves and a pair of towering boots with needle-thin heels. As “Telepatia” starts, she busts some slinking moves while the dancers peel off until one of them returns, delivering her microphone.

previously served as senior legal analyst for the news network. Already a renowned constitutional expert, attorney, commentator, author, and former adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law, Coates has risen through CNN’s ranks by bringing her expertise to matters as high-profile as the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” star Simu Liu is known for his star-studded acting career, his extensive stock photo modeling, his amazing humour, but a lesser-known talent of the star is his musical prowess.