Entertainment executive and entrepreneur Cris Abrego has teamed with director, producer and activist Eva Longoria to form a media holding company and premium content studio, Hyphenate Media Group. The new venture will invest in creator-led enterprises as well as develop and produce its own slate of original programming. Abrego will serve as the CEO of the company, and Longoria as its chief creative officer.
Media and entertainment house Banijay, led by chairman Stephane Courbit and CEO Marco Bassetti has made a strategic investment in the new business to accelerate its growth. Abrego remains chairman of Americas for Banijay–a role he’s held since 2020–while now also serving in his new capacity at Hyphenate Media Group.
The announcement of the Hyphenate launch was made by Abrego and Longoria during a dedicated keynote on Monday (10/16) at MIPCOM Cannes on the future of content.
Collaborators for 20 years, Abrego and Longoria have identified a number of creator-led enterprises with proven leadership and the potential to scale, and will dedicate the initial phase of Hyphenate Media Group’s growth to building out its portfolio of partners. As the industry finds itself at an inflection point, Hyphenate offers an alternative model, supporting creator-entrepreneurs as they build their own production companies and develop a slate of projects to sell independently. The new venture will drive the creative output and deal-making capacity of each partnered company through capital investment, brand development, and the collaborative advantage and infrastructure provided by Hyphenate’s core leadership team.
With an eye towards capturing the rapidly evolving marketplace, which is driven by an ever younger and more diverse audience, Hyphenate Media Group will leverage its co-founders’ commitment to address the industry’s urgent demand for groundbreaking premium content with an inclusive approach and broad appeal. As a destination for visionary multi-hyphenate creator-entrepreneurs, Hyphenate is poised to provide the entertainment industry with a business solution by enabling a multiplicity of connections to audiences around its different brands.
To jumpstart its own independent studio function, Hyphenate Media Group has acquired the full slate of UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, the independent production label founded by Longoria in 2005 and behind titles such as Telenovela, Grand Hotel, and Searching for Mexico. UnbeliEVAble Entertainment projects will be folded into the core operations of the new business, with Hyphenate taking over and advancing the entire lineup as well as developing new scripted and unscripted programs. Its first title, Apple TV+’s Land of Women, is expected to be released in 2024. Both Abrego and Longoria will produce exclusively for the new company, and all television projects directed by Longoria will be produced under the new banner.
Abrego and Longoria are currently in negotiations with several key executives and anticipate announcing their leadership team later this year.
Abrego stated, “With Hyphenate Media Group, Eva and I are building an engine for culture-defining content by investing in visionary multi-hyphenate artists and providing these extraordinary creative leaders with the resources and infrastructure they need to scale their businesses. Through capital, brand development, and the leadership provided by Hyphenate, we will drive their creative output, enhance their deal-making capacity, and grow their brands, building franchises driven by original IP. Over the course of my career, I have scaled multiple production studios, starting with my own and, more recently, on behalf of Banijay. I have known Stephane and Marco for many years, and I am grateful to count on their support and investment in this next chapter.”
Longoria said, “With Hyphenate Media Group, Cris and I are leveraging the power of the creative industry’s greatest resource, the multi-hyphenate, to help meet audiences and the industry where they are. We are answering the industry’s call for premium inclusive content with broad appeal and an undeniable point of view. Our intention is to provide greater financial participation for makers, creators, talent, and entrepreneurs–the Hyphenates. Given the multiple transformations that our business is undergoing, I cannot think of a better time to lean into makers, who are the essential drivers of the creative enterprise.”
Banijay CEO Bassetti said, “Hyphenate Media Group is a studio with a truly unique perspective. Combining Cris’ standout creative leadership with Eva’s reputation as a celebrated producer, director, and activist, this is a powerful home where multi-hyphenate voices can truly tell inclusive mainstream stories. And, with an ambitious vision, unrivaled credentials, and an impressive growth trajectory, this marks the perfect first strategic investment for us in the U.S. scripted market; a space we’d explored for some time but never, until now, found the right fit to cut through.”
Abrego’s background includes having served as CEO of Endemol Shine Holdings, where he grew the company aggressively by scaling several acquisitions under its banner, including Endemol Shine Boomdog, Endemol Shine Brasil, and Truly Original. As co-founder and CEO of 51 Minds Entertainment in 2003, Abrego was one of the pioneers of the celeb-reality genre with breakthrough unscripted formats such as The Surreal Life and the many spin-offs it generated. He grew that company from its boutique beginnings to be a major unscripted studio acquired by Endemol five years later. Abrego also serves as chair of the Television Academy Foundation, the charitable pro-social arm of the Television Academy, and as a member of the Executive Committee for the Television Academy.
Longoria founded production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment in 2005, soon after her breakthrough onscreen role on Desperate Housewives. The prolific company has since been behind hits including Grand Hotel (ABC), Telenovela (NBC), the Emmy Award-nominated documentary Reversing Row (Netflix), and the culinary docuseries Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico (CNN), distributed by Banijay Rights and available at MIPCOM 2023. Longoria made her feature directorial debut with the critically and audience-acclaimed Flamin’ Hot, released earlier this year by Searchlight Pictures on Disney+ and Hulu. The film was Searchlights Pictures’ most streamed premiere ever. Longoria also directed and produced the Sundance-premiered and critically acclaimed documentary La Guerra Civil, chronicling the historic bout between boxing legends Oscar de la Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez, which will be released by DAZN in 2024. A dedicated philanthropist and activist, she has consistently lent her voice to a range of key issues, including diversity and inclusion in the media, Latina entrepreneurship, and STEM education.
