Exclusive: NBCU’s Universal Int’l Studios hires HBO Max, Gaumont alum for global scripted series

We Are Lady Parts

Universal International Studios (UIS) has hired a former HBO Max and Gaumont exec to work across its burgeoning global scripted operation, TBI has learned.

Georgina Gonzalez becomes director of scripted programming at NBCUniversal-owned UIS and will source, develop and produce global series.

Georgina Gonzalez

The exec joins UIS having spent just over a year at HBO Max as director of international originals, where she worked on the development, production and launch of international shows from outside of the US.

Prior to that, Gonzalez had been director of development at Gaumont and led development at Mexico City-based Cinepolis Film Production Studios, working predominantly on features.

She also worked as a creative exec at Story House Entertainment, the LA-based prodco launched in 2016 by Univision (now TelevisaUnivision) that was behind shows such as El Chapo for Netflix. It was subsequently shuttered in 2019.

NBCU has been increasing its international operations of late, recently teasing a new streamer for France and last week unveiling a TV adaptation based on Frederick Forsyth’s thriller The Day Of The Jackal, which is being produced by UIS’s Carnival for Peacock and its Comcast sibling Sky.

Universal International Studios (UIS) was rebranded from NBCU International Studios last year and is based out of LA and the UK, with execs working closely with Universal Studio Group and sibling divisions UCP, Universal Television Alternative and Universal TV.

It houses companies including We Are Lady Parts prodco Working Title, The Capture‘s Heyday Television and Downton Abbey firm Carnival Films, supplying series to NBCU streamer Peacock and third parties.

Beatrice Springborn, president of Universal Content Productions (UCP), has overseen the international operation since March, with UK-based David O’Donoghue named head of studio