Fremantle’s Melissa Harper Joins NBCU TV as Head of Production Management and Ops

Elaine Low
·1 min read

Melissa Harper, most recently the executive vice president of scripted production at Fremantle North America, has been tapped to lead NBCUniversal Television and Streaming as executive vice president of production management and operations.

Harper will oversee the team that supports all physical production with external production partners, working with Universal Studio Group to support in-house productions at NBCU’s linear and streaming platforms, including NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, Syfy, Universal Kids, USA Network and Peacock. The department is tasked with reviewing production budgets, assessing plans, managing asset deliveries, ensuring production-standard compliance, providing oversight and acting as a liaison between producers and in-house NBCU departments.

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“As the Entertainment Content team expands its production scope across our eight platforms, we needed to create a role that would expertly manage our portfolio-wide support,” said Rovner. “Melissa’s experience overseeing large teams on productions of all shapes and sizes makes her the perfect fit within our new structure and I am thrilled to have her at NBCU.”

Most recently at Fremantle North America, Harper led production for the studio’s scripted content, building a full division within the studio and developing plans for U.S. and international productions. Prior to that, she worked at Starz, ultimately rising to executive vice president of original production and functioning as head of originals production at the Starz Network. She oversaw physical production for original shows such as “Power,” “Outlander,” “P-Valley,” “Vida,” the “Princess” series, “Black Sails” and other series, working across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, the U.K. and the European Union.

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