Jay-Z’s Roc Nation launching TV division headed by ex-‘Project Runway’ boss

By Parker Hall May 3, 2018

Rapper Jay-Z is pushing his entertainment company Roc Nation further outside of the musical realm, with the company announcing that it will now launch a TV division.

The new arm will be headed by former Weinstein Company executive Patrick Reardon. An experienced veteran of the TV industry, Reardon has spent 15 years in the space, working as an executive vice president for the Weinstein Co. since 2015, where he co-headed TV efforts — in particular serving as the head of the successful Project Runway franchise.

Despite being relatively new to the world of episodic TV programming, Roc Nation does have a history of producing projects for the screen. Recent film work includes the new documentary Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The company has also produced Time: The Kalief Browder Story for Spike TV, a documentary that earned the company a Peabody award.

Given the activist messages of each of these films, it seems likely that Roc Nation will focus on TV series that prominently feature African American perspectives and showcase issues within underprivileged communities — two things which are very near and dear to Jay-Z’s heart.

While specific shows have yet to be unveiled, the company has said it will focus on both scripted and unscripted content, which means that documentary-style shows or even reality TV shows are not out of the question in Roc Nation’s TV arsenal.

Roc Nation certainly has a great opportunity to create some documentary shows about musicians. The company currently manages Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Mariah Carey, J. Cole, Van Jones, and Angie Martinez, as well as a number of other musicians, actors, and athletes.

For his part, Reardon seems excited to enter the new role.

“Roc Nation is such an influential and dynamic company. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them as they expand their brand into television,” he said in a statement.

There are numerous cogs in motion inside Jay-Z’s media empire. The company recently announced that Phil McIntire, who manages singers Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato, has been named the president of management.

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Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

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