Spotify has promoted Mimi O’Donnell, the head of scripted content at Gimlet, to oversee scripted fiction at the audio giant, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
At Gimlet, the podcast studio acquired by Spotify in 2019, O’Donnell executive produced fiction series like Sandra, starring Kristen Wiig and Alia Shawkat, and Final Chapters of Richard Brown Winters, with a voice cast including Darrell Britt-Gibson, Bobby Cannavale, Catherine Keener, Parker Posey and Sam Waterston.
O’Donnell will report up to Julie McNamara, who leads Spotify’s original content and studio operations as head of talk studios.
The Gimlet executive’s promotion signals Spotify’s increased attention toward narrative fiction podcasts, especially following its success with the series Batman Unburied, which was created as part of Spotify’s multiyear deal with Warner Bros./DC and quickly rose to the top of the audio giant’s podcast rankings after its debut in May. The next entry from that partnership, Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind, has begun production and stars Christina Ricci as Harley Quinn, Billy Magnussen as the Joker and Justin Hartley as Batman.
Other fiction series in the works include the English adaptation of Caso 63 with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. O’Donnell is set to executive produce the series alongside Moore and Isaac.
The Verge first reported O’Donnell’s promotion.
