Cris Abrego’s rise to the top of the unscripted world of television is a story of passion and perseverance. Born and raised in a suburb of El Monte, California, he is a second-generation Mexican American who fought hard to break into the entertainment industry 25 years ago. Now, as Chairman of the Americas Board of Paris-based Banegay, and President and CEO of Endemol Shine Holdings, Abrego is one of the highest-grossing Latino CEOs in Hollywood.
“When I was younger, I couldn’t get a job in the industry,” Abrego says. “I had no connections, and even though we lived 24 miles from Hollywood, my age was completely different. I felt very much like an outsider and it was very difficult for people like me to find their way around.”
His life changed when he joined the Bunim/Murray production team, which launched a new generation of reality TV shows with “The Real World”. The show became a hugely influential international success, spawning legions of imitators, and opened up an entire genre.
“I was working in Palm Springs for an NBC news company, and two years later, I was back in L.A., cutting my teeth on unscripted shows at Bonim/Murray,” Abrego says. “Jonathan Murray and Mary Ellis Bonim are the people who have given me the opportunity to succeed in this industry, and have always run a very comprehensive business.”
In his position at Banijay, Abrego oversees nine production studios in North and Latin America that produce nearly 100 unwritten television series each year. Abrego was recently elected president of the TV Academy Foundation, where he has developed several initiatives designed to bring greater diversity to the industry, both before and behind the camera.
Last year, Abrego presented the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Committee for Banigai, named
Carla Beta Laure, also Latina and Central American, is Executive Vice President of Corporate Integration and Social Responsibility at Banijay Americas.
Together, Abrego and Pita Loor have launched a number of partnerships in the embedding space in unscripted television, including a recent partnership with the Group Effort Initiative (GEI), founded by actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. The goal of GEI’s Diversity Employment Charter is to create sub-level and entry-level jobs for candidates from historically excluded communities at the top of an unregistered chain across four Banijay Americas studios in the United States.
“We want to go out and create things that have real meaning and have positive value for everyone involved,” Abrego says. “We don’t chase flashy ads simply in order to get some good press. Karla’s main focus is on looking at our business within our group and where our partnerships are, and building real infrastructure.”
Abrego is driven to help those who need more insight within the industry. In 2021, he and Peta Laure, along with several unregistered television leaders, unveiled a multi-million dollar internship program with the Television Academy Foundation, targeting minority college students from the greater Los Angeles area.
says Peta Laure, who played a key role in sponsoring the program.
“We brought them into media companies, including Endemol Shine, Bunim/Murray and a few others, and what we really wanted was to turn internships into real jobs. That was the focus and we achieved that goal,” she says.
Abrego takes pride in how the internship experience is presented and implemented by everyone on the planning team, providing career opportunities for those who would not otherwise have the opportunity.
“There were a lot of companies that didn’t benefit from a system like this, and most importantly, everyone who got training ended up finding work,” he says. “Internships are great, but if they don’t turn into work, they won’t have an impact. That is the most important aspect and this is how we can change things.”
Pita Loor recently helped solidify another new partnership in the diversity space. In April, it announced that Banijay Americas will collaborate with WarnerMedia OneFifty to create an incubator program designed to develop an unwritten series of artists with real insights and perspectives. The studios will select five creators who will receive a WarnerMedia OneFifty grant, as well as development deals with participating production studios at Banijay Americas to support their projects and prepare them for sale to potential buyers.
Participating companies include Bonim/Murray, Trolley Original and
51 minds.
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