Diversity Tested at Paramount TV as 13 People of Color Exit in 2 Years | Exclusive

Paramount TV has lost 13 employees of color in the past two years, including six executives from Paramount+ and Paramount Television Studios, leading insiders to question the commitment to diversity of president Nicole Clemens and the company, TheWrap has learned.

Paramount Television Studios VP of development Carlos Aguirre, development director Portia Rainey and Lisa Wang Pearl were laid off as part of a major restructuring in Nov. 2022, TheWrap confirmed with a Paramount insider familiar with the matter. Paramount+ development directors Ashley Whitaker and Cela Sutton and Paramount Television Studios VP of current programming Meggie Choi all left the company in the last two years.

In addition, the insider listed numerous exits of BIPOC employees recently, including Paramount+ development coordinators Simone Warrick and Ashley Sheppard-Quince, who left after just a few months, and assistants Auggie Mares and Devyn Claure. Paramount Television Studios development manager Phoebe Kim, business affair coordinator Ian To and Aguirre’s assistant Camila Rios Irizarry were also laid off.

A spokesman for Paramount TV declined to confirm or deny the staff exits, but noted that despite the recent layoffs, the proportion of diverse staff at the studio had not changed.

“Paramount Television Studios remains committed to hiring and nurturing a diverse and inclusive workplace. Unfortunately, like many others in this industry, last year PTVS consolidated and streamlined its operations,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “While this was a painful process for everyone, there was no statistical change in the ratio of employees with respect to race or gender. We will continue to strive to create a fostering environment where all people can grow and thrive.”

The reasons for the exit of so many diverse executives are multi-faceted. Some said they left for better opportunities, others said they were discouraged to see white peers promoted over them. Still, others who spoke with TheWrap said they observed leadership shift priorities from diverse programming to more shows like “Yellowstone,” the wildly successful Taylor Sheridan franchise.

Inside Paramount TV, the exits have left employees who remain wondering if the studio’s prior commitment to a diverse staff and programming was left behind in the restructuring.

“Even if everybody’s left under different circumstances. It’s f—g odd,” one insider told TheWrap who was disturbed by the exodus. “Thirteen people of color leave in two years.”

“It was very tough on the creative side” after the November layoffs, the Paramount insider added. “We went from having one of the most diverse development rooms in town to being not so diverse — very quickly.”

TheWrap reached out to all the executives who had left Paramount TV. None of those reached agreed to respond for the record. Three could not be reached ahead of publication.

The insider attributed some of the exodus to leadership choices from Paramount TV President Nicole Clemens, who joined in 2018 following the sudden ouster of Amy Powell. Clemens assumed oversight of some creative Paramount+ operations in May 2021, but returned her focus to the studio’s day-to-day operations after the Nov. 2022 restructuring that merged Paramount Television Studios with Paramount+’s scripted originals team.

“Nobody is surprised about who got laid off, let’s put it that way. And it’s not surprising what the team looks like” now, one former Paramount executive told TheWrap.

“They left just enough people of color to make you feel like ‘Oh, they didn’t fire all of us,'” another former staffer said.

Paramount has made dedicated efforts to focus on diversity since 2021. George Cheeks, the chief content officer, news and sports for Paramount+, who is also president and CEO of CBS, is himself biracial. But even with some diverse executives at the top of the company, many in the DEI community observe that the company’s top leadership is overwhelmingly white and male, from CEO Bob Bakish to Paramount Streaming CEO Tom Ryan to Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins.

Clemens declined to comment for this story.

Consolidation at work

The exits and layoffs are tied to ongoing efforts to streamline Paramount’s television operations, which have led to job cuts across the board, as well as employees leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

But at least one former Paramount staffer of color credited a change in the company culture at the studio following the November layoffs, which also saw the exit of PTVS head of development Jenna Santoianni after her job was eliminated.

Current and former Paramount employees who spoke with TheWrap referred to Santoianni, whom Clemens promoted to the position, as a champion of diversity at the studio. The November restructuring saw Jana Helman promoted to head of development of the new merged team.

The Paramount insider noted that one of Helman’s first moves in the position was to promote her white assistant to coordinator, “which essentially boxes out the assistants of color who have been in the company longer.”

Workers of color “know there is no upward mobility there because the new head of development just took care of her white woman assistant,” the insider added.

That, along with Clemens’ hiring record, left those who remained feeling discouraged about the once diverse workforce.

“You’re seeing all of these people of color that are either being moved out or quit, and those who are left move themselves out because there isn’t the level of diversity (in leadership) that we all feel is necessary for a company that distributes and promotes content for wide audiences,” one former Paramount Television Studios employee told TheWrap.

Diversity boosted, but not fostered

The exits amount to a problem of optics and culture for Paramount, but may be part and parcel of the rolling consolidation that has led to thousands of job cuts across the entertainment industry.

Conglomerates like Paramount began pushing for diversity in their workforce in 2020 and 2021, sparked by initiatives inspired by the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. Gillian Williams, president and founder of Monday Talent, a talent recruiting agency with an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, told TheWrap “the theory of the last one in, the first one out” is apparent in the layoffs.

“A lot of the concerns that many talents of color had when they were getting hired in the first place was that the companies were just doing it to check a box,” Williams said. “Seeing the impact of these layoffs confirms those feelings.”

But Williams noted that the issue goes beyond hiring, as workers of color fail to thrive in environments where they don’t see the same opportunities for growth as white colleagues.

“Are (these companies) building an inclusive organization? Are they building a culture where people of color can thrive?” Williams said. “Employers got this talent through the door, but the (jobs) weren’t in a culture where they felt supported, where they felt they could do their best work… And because the culture isn’t there, it’s not sustainable talent.”

Williams’ thoughts echo sentiments from current and former Paramount employees who spoke with TheWrap.

“For people of color under Nicole Clemens, it does feel demoralizing to not see diversity reflected in senior leadership positions within the studio,” the insider said.

Appealing to a whiter audience

Paramount’s decision to consolidate its television operations arrives as cost-cutting efforts are being implemented across Hollywood. Like with the advent of a more diverse workforce, programming that highlights diverse stories and creative teams tends to be the first on the chopping block when budgets tighten.

“The projects that ended up getting purged (from Paramount+) and viewed as ‘not being sellable’… came from diverse creative partners,” the insider told TheWrap. “We felt like it disproportionately affected diverse projects.”

The insider pointed to the “Grease” spin-off “Rise of the Pink Ladies” as a prominent example of a show featuring a diverse cast and creative team, which was canceled and removed from the streaming service just three weeks after the release of the Season 1 finale.

One of the former employees said the shift in programming priorities came long before the November restructuring.

“We would have a project that came in that’s Latino-led, and the question (from the top) was ‘do you think this will pass muster?’ ” the former employee recalled. “That’s the question that comes up… ‘It’s not a “Yellowstone”-type show, right?’ (Implying that) it’s not a show that is for a white audience, to be completely blunt about it.

“There was always a little bit of hesitation from the creative group coming in with projects that were Black or Brown-led because of that,” the former employee added.

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