Anonymous Content Cuts Staff As It Searches for CEO

Erik Hayden
·2 min read
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Anonymous Content, the management and production company that backed Oscar winner The Revenant and the upcoming season of HBO’s True Detective, is undergoing a notable round of layoffs.

The Culver City-based firm cut 8 percent of around 170 employees companywide, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter. Employees were notified of the layoffs on Friday.

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The company, which saw CEO Dawn Olmstead and COO Heather McCauley exit in March, has yet to unveil a new leader although a source says that the firm is in the “final stages” of naming a top executive.

Emerson Collective, founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, is a minority investor in Anonymous Content, and has backed the company since its investment in 2016 when it touted a roster of 500 clients.

The firm, founded by the late Steve Golin in 1999, has also produced projects like Spotlight, Schitt’s Creek and Mr. Robot. Its recent releases include multiple projects with Netflix (Midnight Sky, 13 Reasons Why) as well as Matt Damon starrer Stillwater, which grossed $14 million in its COVID-era 2021 release.

On its management side, Anonymous Content’s roster of currently listed clients includes Samuel L. Jackson, Emma Stone, Paul Dano, Austin Butler, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Stanley Tucci and more.

The company’s upcoming projects include an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, which is set up at MGM, as well as Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits on Apple TV+.

Multiple entertainment companies have undergone cuts as major networks and streaming platforms appear to be growing more selective about the film and TV projects they greenlight. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes have also slowed production this summer.

The management-production space has become a crowded sector over the past several years, as new entrants like Range Media (Est. 2020) have launched while others — like Casey Wasserman’s sports and representation firm, which bought Brillstein Entertainment Partners in September — have scaled up.

Friday’s layoffs at Anonymous Content were earlier reported by Variety.

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