Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Genre | Religious |
Founded | November 12, 2009 in California, U.S. |
Founders | |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA, United States |
Products |
|
Parent | United Artists Media Group (2014–2015) MGM Television (2015–2023) Amazon MGM Studios (2023–present) |
Website | lightworkers |
Lightworkers Media is an American independent Christian media and film production company helmed by President Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett and owned by Amazon MGM Studios.
LightWorkers Media produced the Emmy-nominated The Bible on the History channel as well as A.D. The Bible Continues on NBC, The Dovekeepers on CBS [1] (based on the novel by Alice Hoffman), Women of the Bible on Lifetime, and Answered Prayers on TLC. They also produced the feature films Ben-Hur , Son of God , Little Boy , [1] Woodlawn and On a Wing and a Prayer .
Lightworkers Media was formed by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey with a partial stake held by Hearst Corporation, which owned a stake in Burnett's One Three Media. [1] One of its first productions was The Bible for History, premiered in early 2013. [2]
On September 22, 2014, MGM acquired a 55% stake in Lightworkers Media and One Three Media and consolidated the two companies into MGM's new TV production unit, United Artists Media Group, with Burnett as CEO. [1] On December 14, 2015, MGM announced that it had acquired the remaining stakes in UAMG in a stock and cash deal, and that Burnett would become the new CEO of MGM Television, replacing the outgoing president Roma Khanna. [3]
With MGM purchasing out of Hearst and Burnett and Downey's shares in UAMG, a channel in the works was still a planned streaming service. However, Hearst and Burnett and Downey retained their stakes in the channel. [4] MGM announced the formation of Light TV on November 16, 2016, with a launch planned for December on thirteen Fox TV stations. [5]
The series is the first project together from husband and wife producing team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. [6] In addition to Burnett and Downey, executive producers include Richard Bedser and History's Dirk Hoogstra and Julian P. Hobbs. [7] The first episode of the mini-series was seen by 13.1 million viewers, the largest cable television audience of 2013 to date. [8] The finale delivered 11.7 million total viewers. [9]
The Bible shattered sales records in its first week of home video release, selling 525,000 units to become the top-selling TV miniseries of all time. [10] In total, with subsequent airings, 'The Bible' has been seen by more than 95 million viewers. [11]
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James Mark Burnett is a British television producer who has won 13 Emmy Awards including 10 Primetime, one Sports Emmy Award and two Daytime Emmy Awards. His other accolades include five Producers Guild of America Awards, twelve Critics' Choice Television Awards, and ten People's Choice Awards. From 2013 to 2017, Burnett was listed on Variety500, an index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry.
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Roma Downey is a British actress, producer, and author from Northern Ireland. She gained recognition for her role as Monica the angel, in the CBS television series Touched by an Angel, which ran for nine seasons. Downey portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the Emmy Award-winning miniseries A Woman Named Jackie. Downey stars in and produces the television series The Baxters. She has a stage career, performing with the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre of Ireland, and appearing on and off Broadway.
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Geoff Tunnicliffe is a global strategist, advisor, peace activist and author, born in United Kingdom. He was the Secretary-General for the World Evangelical Alliance from 2005 - 2014.
The Bible is a television miniseries based on the Bible. It was produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett and was broadcast weekly between March 3 and 31, 2013 on History channel. It has since been adapted as a feature film, Son of God.
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A.D. The Bible Continues is an American biblical drama television series, based on the Bible, and a sequel to the 2013 miniseries, The Bible, and follows up from the film Son of God which was a more in depth look on Jesus's story. It was produced by Roma Downey, Mark Burnett, and Richard Bedser. The limited series began airing on NBC on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015, in twelve weekly one-hour episodes. The story takes place immediately after the events of The Bible miniseries, and then of the Son of God film, beginning with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and continues with the first ten chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. On July 3, 2015, NBC cancelled A.D. The Bible Continues after one season.
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Two soundtracks were released for the epic biblical film Son of God: an original soundtrack and an album that featured music inspired by the film and an original soundtrack. The former featured compositions from the musical score composed by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe and also featuring Lisa Gerrard; the trio worked on the History Channel television miniseries The Bible (2013), created by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who also produced the film under the Lightworkers Media. The album also consisted of remixed songs from CeeLo Green, OneRepublic, Sara Bareilles amongst others. The latter was distributed by Word Entertainment that featured contributions from Christian music artists Francesca Battistelli, Chris August, Dara Maclean, Sidewalk Prophets amongst others. Both the albums were released on February 25, 2014, three days before the film's release.
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