Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos to Develop Book ‘Geek Girl Rising’ as TV Series (EXCLUSIVE)
Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos will develop the book “Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech” as a scripted television series, Variety has learned exclusively.
ABC Studios optioned the book, which will be released by St. Martin’s Press on May 23. Ripa and Consuelos will executive produce along with Albert Bianchini through their Milojo Productions banner, which is currently under an overall deal with the studio. Milojo also produces the upcoming Logo unscripted series “Fire Island” and has previously developed several shows with ABC Studios.
The book, written by journalists Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens, introduces readers to the female entrepreneurs and technologists who are building the next generation of tech start-ups, investing in each other’s ventures, upending male hacker stereotypes, and rallying women and girls everywhere to join the digital revolution. According to information cited by the authors, just 2.7 percent of venture capital-funded companies have a female CEO, while 94 percent of venture capitalists are male and mostly white. In addition, 56 percent of women in technology drop out mid-career and only 18 percent of undergraduate computer science degree recipients today are women , which has dropped from a high of 37 percent in 1985.
Ripa currently hosts the syndicated daytime series “Live! with Kelly.” She took over that role from Kathie Lee Gifford in 2001, serving as co-host alongside Regis Philbin until his retirement in 2011. Michael Strahan then took over for Philbin, but he exited the show in mid-2016 for an anchor spot on “Good Morning America.”
Milojo is repped by CAA and attorney Jake Levy with Franklin Weinrib Rudell & Vassallo P.C. The book was repped by CAA and Lisa Leshne of The Leshne Agency. Cabot and Walravens are repped by attorney Andrew Hurwitz at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
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