How Laura Fernández Espeso Is Taking Mediapro Studio Global

Laura Fernández Espeso, who assumed office as Managing Director of The Mediapro Studio or TMS, in January 2020, has internationalised the Iberian giant. It has 52 offices in 31 countries and this summer began operating across the United States and Canada. “We have just started offices in Los Angeles whereas we have been working in Miami and New York within the last few years,” says, TMS US & Canada meets our objective to write, produce and broadcast in English, for an international audience.”

Its English-language credits up to now are The Young Pope and The New Pope, both directed by Paolo Sorrentino for HBO/Max or Nicolas Winding Refn’s family adventure series The Famous Five for BBC or feature films such A Perfect Day, Hunting Ava Bravo, Hard Truths by Mike Leigh.

Independent film making is the initial field that Fernández Espeso stepped into needs to more than two decades ago. “I was able to collaborate with international directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Danis Tanovic, Ken Loach and Juan José Campanella, to name some of them” she remembered, “I believe this opportunity paved for what was to come and boosted my desire to work with international talent and with productions that come from very different places.”

Fernández Espeso was born in a village near Zamora in western Spain, and has worked across Europe, in London, Brussels, and Madrid, in L.A, and is now back in Madrid, where she is mapping out TMS’ international strategy. She will reveal the company full English language schedule at MIPCOM where she will deliver a media master class on how she intends to do for TMS what it has achieved for Spanish market, which the group estimated controls up to a quarter of the primetime TV programming in the country, globally to the vast English speaking market.

Of the recently unveiled The Hollywood Reporter’s Most Powerful Women in International TV for 2024 list, Fernández Espeso spared some time and answered a slew of questions to the magazine about her path from indie film producer to the owner of the The Mediapro Studio and how her company will rule the world.

Where did you start working in the business?

I was active in independent film production more than twenty years ago. I got an opportunity to direct with some of the world’s most acclaimed directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Danis Tanovic, Ken Loach, Juan José Campanella, among others. I believe that this experience prepared me for what would come later and stimulated me in a desire to work with international talent and productions of a very different origin.

I have also had the chance to work and live in different country during early years of my career in Brussels and later in Los Angeles. All of that together with later work in the Great Britain and in Latin America – in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico – contributes to my personal and career development.

What do you consider to have been your most formidable professional test this past year?

In order to further the Studio’s work and business in the country of United States of America. Hence, we have set up offices in Los Angeles after we have been active in Miami and New York in the recent past years.

The Mediapro Studio manages our needs to develop, produce and broadcast content in English, aimed at audiences internationally. This has been a pleasure to be able to include vivid working people like Juan ‘JC’ Acosta and other men and women executives. We will be unveiling very strong national programs at MIPCOM coming into the market.

On which aspect do you think you made your biggest improvement over the past year?

Getting to the point of being able to launch the content, which we will be announcing in the near future. North American Attempts at Comedy, Drama, and Entertainment Series & Movies Industries and Great Industry Talent: Actors and Creators. This year we also released The 47, now in its third consecutive week as Spain’s number one box office hit and set to become the biggest Spanish movie release of the year.

Moving on to film we have just returned from the San Sébastian International Film Festival where we showed Mike Leigh’s film Hard Truths in the official section in which it has been reviewed most wonderfully both here and at the Toronto Film Festival in early September. In San Sebastian we also presented Celeste, a series partially produced with Movistar Plus that will be available on the platform in November. We are also delighted again this year to have received a second International Emmy nomination for Yosi, The Regretful Spy.

At the studio, we’re very proud to have integrated the production company Fresco Film, a leading service company in international fiction with titles like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Westworld, The Blacklist, Killing Eve, Narcos: Mexico, the latest series Kaos and other motion pictures such Uncharted, Terminator: Dark Fate, Spider-Man: Far from Home and the most recent from Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant among others.

The expansion of Cimarron [with Society of the Snow, winner of an Oscar nomination for the best foreign language film, Barrabrava, winner of the Platino Award or the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck production, Kiss of Spider Woman] has also been very important and worthy to highlight this year.

The key question in this case, is what still has to be done to enhance equality and diversity in the industry?

While much has been achieved in the last ten years, the international audiovisual sector, including Latin America, still has much to do in terms of equality of representation inside companies between men and women. There should never be a violation of the dignity and equality of any person as a consequence of their difference. Cinema and television are the strongest tools for forming political and cultural stereotypes and for rewarding ‘the Other,’ which, in some cases, has been abused. This means, it is critically important to focus on what stories we tell and with whom we share them, who writes, directs and acts in them, who produces them.

In fact, the Group Mediapro has a diversity committee that creates very interesting things. This it does while also advocating for female talent and increasing visibility of functional, generational, cultural and gender diversity. There is the requirement to actively participate and also to create the possibilities. We have great information concerning parity at The Studio, and we have researched and hired exceptional females to head our divisions. Still, I believe that it is a work that all of us have to do above and below the screen.

What is or has been the biggest difficulty of being a woman in this (which is still largely dominated by men) field?

I have been privileged to work in the last 15 years in an environment like Mediapro where massive support was given to my career and personal development. Nevertheless, I fully endorse the opinion that game industry is still very much a boy’s club and we still have to go a long way in that regard.

Which industry trend, existing today, you wish could disappear earlier than later?

These recent years have really seen us experience major changes and therefore different methods of getting to the audience. The industry is growing very rapidly as well. It is very difficult to come up with great material that is considered to be in style, which is always the work of Internet content makers — we don’t just follow styles, we try to set them.

If today’s young women are aspiring to join the fashion and modeling industry what advice would you give them?

Pay for it, work hard for it, never stop learning it, and treat your fellow humans and the job and everything else with as much respect as possible. If you work harder you do get in the spotlight and pretty soon there are even more opportunities out there.

Which modern day on-air television series would you like to have been part of creating?

[Netflix’s] Ripley.

What television programmes do you enjoy?

,Priscilla, There Is Still Tomorrow, Past Lives.

What do you do to unwind?

I like to read, listen to music, be with my son, take a walk in the forest, travel and like to taste different kinds of food.