Robert Greenblatt | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959/1960 (age 59-60) [1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California University of Wisconsin University of Illinois Boylan Catholic High School [2] |
| Occupation | Television executive |
| Notable work | 9 to 5 |
| Television | The Voice Parenthood Chicago Fire |
| Awards | Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television Drama |
Robert Greenblatt (born 1959/1960) is an American television executive, former chairman of NBC Entertainment [3] [4] [5] and former chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. He has since launched his production company, The Green Room. [6]
Greenblatt was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, USA. [1] He was raised Catholic and attended Boylan Catholic High School. [7] [2] He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre management from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin's Madison School of Business. He also earned a Master of Fine Arts from the USC School of Cinema-Television's Peter Stark Producing Program. [4]
Greenblatt began his television career at the Fox Broadcasting Company, where he ran prime-time programming and developed such shows as the original Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place , The X-Files , and Party of Five . [3] [4]
From 1997 to 2003, Greenblatt was a producer (along with David Janollari through their production company, The Greenblatt Janollari Studio) of over a dozen series for various networks, including Six Feet Under , along with the 2005 miniseries Elvis and Gregory Nava's American Family for PBS. [3] [4]
From 2003 to 2010, Greenblatt was President of Entertainment for Showtime. [8] He supervised a slate of original programming that dramatically repositioned the pay channel as a leader in the premium cable business. Under his leadership, he developed and supervised award-winning shows like Weeds , Dexter , Californication , The Tudors , Nurse Jackie , and United States of Tara . [3] [4]
As a theatrical producer, Greenblatt developed the musical stage adaptation of 9 to 5 , which premiered on Broadway in April 2009 and closed September 2009, with the National Tour starting in September 2010. It was nominated for four Tony Awards. [3] [4]
Greenblatt was the chairman of NBC Entertainment. He succeeded Jeff Gaspin in January 2011 after Comcast took control of the newly renamed NBCUniversal. [3] [9]
On March 4, 2019, Greenblatt was named as the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment as part of AT&T's reorganization of WarnerMedia. He oversaw HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT and TruTV. [10] He was responsible for helping oversee the development of HBO Max, the company's streaming service which launched in May 2020. [11] He was fired from WarnerMedia in August 2020 amid restructuring. [12] [13] More recently, he launched his own production company with a deal at Lionsgate. [14]
In August 2016, Greenblatt labeled then presidential candidate Donald Trump as "toxic" and "demented". [15]
Greenblatt is the first and only openly gay broadcast TV president. [16]
Greenblatt boils down his background this way: a gay, Catholic kid with a Jewish last name who grew up in rural Rockford, Ill.