Liz Gateley, who left Spotify at the end of 2024 after a six-year run, has nailed up her own media shingle.
Gateley, a TV veteran behind such shows as MTV’s “Laguna Beach,” “The Hills” and “Teen Mom,” joined Spotify in 2019 and has served as the audio giant’s head of development for original podcasts. Her new venture is Damsel Media, a production company focused on creating content for female Gen Z audiences.
For Damsel Media’s first two projects — scripted series created by Gateley — she has partnered with 32 Flavors and Haymaker East. Casting is underway on both but at this point she’s keeping mum on details.
Damsel Media productions will span multiple formats, including TV, film, direct-to-consumer streaming services and other digital media. Gateley said she wants the company to “inspire” the next generation of female viewers with stories that “resonate with and reflect their experience.”
Gateley said Damsel Media has been in the works “in my heart and mind” for about a year. “I see a gap in the marketplace for storytelling, especially for young women… I live inside the brain of a 17-year-old!”
She left Spotify at the end of 2024. “It was really about me feeling like I wanted to go back to longform storytelling,” she said.
“I am so grateful for the past six years at Spotify, not only because of the talented people I got to work with, but the tremendous amount of learning while developing projects with incredible creators within a fast-growing, dynamic company,” Gateley said. “Now it’s time for me to return to my love of longform storytelling and my passion for making premium content for young audiences with Damsel Media.”
Gateley has signed with CAA and with Tara Senior and Todd Weinstein’s Weinstein Senior LLC law firm. Damsel Media does not currently have outside investors: “I want to have a couple shows on the air before I stake that step,” she said.
In February 2019, Gateley joined Spotify as employee No. 4 on the company’s original podcast studios team. During her tenure she oversaw the overall Warner Bros./DC partnership deal with Spotify, launching “Batman Unburied,” “Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind” and “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark.” Gateley also worked alongside Kim Kardashian on her first podcast on criminal justice, “The System: The Case of Kevin Keith,” and developed “What Now? With Trevor Noah,” currently in its second season.
In addition, Gateley led the creation of Spotify Pictures, which adapts podcasts and IP from the platform into visual media, launching “RapCaviar Presents” as a docuseries for Hulu and “The Horror of Dolores Roach,” starring Justina Machado, with Blumhouse for Amazon Prime Video.
Prior to Spotify, Gateley was head of programming at Lifetime Television where she oversaw original scripted and unscripted series and more than 100 original movies per year. While at Lifetime, she developed “You” from Greg Berlanti (which subsequently moved to Netflix), “Surviving R. Kelly” and “Learning to Skateboard in a War Zone (If You’re a Girl),” which won the 2020 Academy Award for documentary short.
Gateley worked at MTV for a decade starting in 2003. After creating “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills,” as MTV head of development she oversaw a slate of hits including “Teen Wolf,” “Jersey Shore,” “16 & Pregnant,” “Teen Mom,” “America’s Best Dance Crew,” “Human Giant,” “Run’s House,” “Wild ‘N Out” and “Ridiculousness.” In 2010, backed by Barry Diller and Ben Silverman, Gateley co-founded production company DiGa with Tony DiSanto (then president of MTV). At DiGa, she adapted “Scream” into a series for MTV and continued to executive produce “Teen Wolf.” In 2014, Gateley and DiSanto sold DiGa to ITV.
Gateley got her start in the entertainment biz as a mailroom trainee at William Morris. Before that she practiced law in both New York and Los Angeles after attending Loyola Law School in L.A. She grew up in Palos Verdes, California (which was her inspiration for “Laguna Beach”) and attended UCLA as an undergraduate. Gateley currently lives in New York City with her husband, Greg, and their three children: Isabella, Gabby and Finn.
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