The Real Deal: Hollywood’s Business Affairs Powerhouse

The old Yiddish proverb, “We plan, God laughs,” expresses a truth everyone can relate to. We make plans at every stage of life, but things have a way of turning out that is not quite as we hoped. And, in some cases, it sets us on a different path that’s even better than expected, especially in the case of Jenn Allen ’03, vice president of business affairs for Universal Studio Groups.

 

Allen had the dubious distinction of graduating from Boston College when the financial markets cratered in 2008, effectively dashing her hopes of working for a hedge fund at a private equity firm before pursuing a law degree. Ever industrious, Allen pivoted and landed a job in one of the buzziest brands during the oughts, Abercrombie and Fitch, where she worked as a model recruiter with top talent agencies, including Wilhmenia and Ford, to discover those chiseled, shirtless models for A&F ad campaigns. Through her work as a recruiter, she befriended a model-turned-actor named Barrett, who worked on the movie “Precious,” and its lead actress, Gabby Sidibe, where Allen was exposed to the movie’s table reads, attended premieres, and met with her friends’ agents, managers, and lawyers. 

 

 

“When I met one of the actor’s entertainment lawyers, I was full of questions,” Allen said. “As soon as I realized that entertainment law was a potential avenue, Gabby, my actor friend Barrett, and I planned to head out to California, where I would attend law school and represent them. And so that was that.”

 

Despite only cursory knowledge of Los Angeles gleaned from watching the MTV show “The Hills,” Allen googled the area map and headed to the City of Angels. 

 

“I have a very vivid imagination, and once I get an idea in my head, I manifest it,” she said.

 

Soon after arriving in L.A., she applied to four law schools with the country’s most prestigious entertainment law programs and enrolled at Southwestern Law School. Upon graduating, Allen had a brief stint at a music law firm before. She landed a job at Disney for four years, where she started as a technology lawyer for the Disney branded television groups Disney Channel, Freeform, ABC, ABC Studios, and SoapNet. From Disney, she moved to another industry powerhouse, Warner Brothers. Allen describes her career path as non-linear and says she remained open and flexible to opportunities as they presented themselves.

 

Although Allen is a transactional lawyer by training, her role as a business affairs executive at NBCUniversal is less lawyerly; she’s a high-level negotiator, managing  Seth MacFarlane productions like “Ted” and several other projects in development with MacFarlane. “Ted” premiered in January on Peacock and is the most successful premiere on Peacock to date in the streaming platform’s history, a distinction Allen considers “really thrilling and well deserved.”

 

“Business affairs executives tend to be more experienced entertainment lawyers who were able to transition to handling high-level negotiations,” she said. 

 

For one of USG’s productions, which aired on Starz, “Gaslit,” a story about the Watergate scandal, Allen negotiated with Julia Roberts’s lawyer, agent, and manager to come to terms on the material deal points required for her to appear on the show. Fortunately, Allen did not encounter any diva requests on Robert’s contract rider, which are customary in the entertainment business,e.g., Van Halen’s demand that no brown-colored M & Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts. For Roberts, those top-line deal points included only performer fees, options, acting and executive producing credit, publicity, dressing room specifications, as well as hair, makeup, and wardrobe.

 

Allen works in tandem with the creative executives. For instance, those executives may create a concept for a serialized television show based on a book. Then, they approach the business affairs department to acquire the property and attach certain talent to the project. In turn, Allen then structures and negotiates the deals to develop, sell, and produce the project. 

 

“Business affairs is responsible for figuring out the nuts and bolts of what we need to do to produce shows and turn a profit for the studio,” she said. “Sometimes in the development stage, we attach talent early, but usually, in order to develop and sell a project to a network or streaming platform, you start by identifying a writer, or what we refer to as the creator. In TV, the writer is really the star, so a creator is always attached before we pitch a project.”

 

After the deal is closed with the talent, the studio’s creative executives shop the property around to various networks and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Peacock, and Apple. Once a buyer bids on a project, Allen negotiates the terms of the license with the network or platform to exhibit the show. During Allen’s time in the entertainment industry, she witnessed a sea change with the advent of streaming and cord-cutting, transforming the business tremendously.

 

“Streaming deals are really fun because they are not aligned with the traditional TV business model in which the shows are financed at a deficit,” she said. “They tend to be more outside the box.  If we’re lucky, we will have a bidding war with two or three platforms, which gives the studio the leverage to increase the premium when we negotiate the license deal with the network or platform. ”

 

Hollywood has a reputation for a highly cutthroat culture, especially in hard-knuckled negotiations. However, Allen insists that working in-house at the major studios is more genteel and old-school corporate. But, she said, you still need to maintain evenness and confidence to cut through deals, and Allen credits her six years at KO for developing these skills. 

 

“We were taught not only to be leaders but also to be thoughtful decision-makers.,” she said. “The teachers trusted you and allowed you the autonomy to handle your own affairs.”

 

Allen described several instances that put her negotiating talents to the test. Although her studio is very talent-friendly, one A-list movie star insisted on filming in a location other than New York, even though the book the movie was based on was set in New York. In that case, the talent’s request was a non-starter, since the movie’s location was intrinsic to the storyline. That’s where the deal-making starts.

 

“I always say that deals aren’t made in a vacuum,” Allen said. “It’s all a sliding scale. So if we’re negotiating six points, you don’t really want to close on any one or two of these points when you’re super far off on three or four. You definitely want to leverage each concession to your advantage.”

 

In one situation regarding a Seth MacFarlane property, the deal reached an impasse that lasted months between Allen’s team and the partners of Hollywood’s biggest talent agency.

 

Although Allen was the most junior executive involved, she said she raised thoughtful objections, spoke truth to power about the failings of the negotiations, and asked her manager to back her on her idea. 

 

“My boss said, ‘Oh, that actually makes sense,’” Allen said. “We proffered my idea, and we got it done the next day – this huge issue that we couldn’t fix for months. Quite frankly, I went rogue but the president of the studio supported me, and we got what we needed the very next day.”

 

Allen is motivated and entranced by the problem-solving aspect of her job. She regards 50 percent of her job as negotiating and 50 percent as psychological.

 

 

“What it comes down to,” she said, “is that in order to get a deal made, no one person is going to get everything they want. It really is truly a compromise. I’m consistent and just as friendly as I am in my personal life as I am in my work life because you work with all the same people. You want to be honest, and you want to be forthright because you’re going to have to deal with this person on another deal at some point. It’s easier when someone knows you are trustworthy and good at your work so you can cut through deals.”

 

 

Allen balances her high-octane career with plenty of self-care and moderation in her personal life to manage the unpredictability of her work days. Establishing boundaries between her home and office is key: She has two phones – a personal one and a business one and likewise for her laptop – a true test of self-discipline. She wakes up at 5:00 a.m., works out, walks her dog, and meditates for 30 minutes, which she describes as life-changing.

 

After her morning routine, she heads into the office at 10:30, and her time is no longer hers. Running from meeting to meeting, she said there is no time to stop for lunch while simultaneously fielding a steady stream of calls and urgencies that need immediate attention. But she’s not complaining.

 

“This is my dream job,” she said. “This is what I envisioned. I literally put this career on my vision board. Everything I do is interesting, and I’m so grateful to be where I am.”

 

Allen is paying it forward and developing young talent as her mentors have done for her. She recognizes that she wouldn’t be where she is if it weren’t for the encouragement and support of strong female industry leaders. “Find people who have done it before you and ask for their advice,” she said. She’s watched and learned from the best and then cultivated those relationships as she has risen through the ranks. 

 

A disruptor of the status quo, Allen fights for her people.”I advocated for the elevation of both of my direct reports, and they were promoted within months of each other,” she said. 

 

Taking a strong stance within the organization, she gave the higher-ups a deadline for when she expected action. For one of her direct reports, Allen provided fact sheets and point-by-point comparisons to illustrate why the promotion was appropriate, and a day before her assigned deadline, management promoted her direct report. She lives up to the adage on her email signature, “aut viam inveniam aut faciam” – I shall either find a way or make one.

 

“Because I am a woman and a woman of color in an industry that has not traditionally been open to female voices, especially Black voices, you really do have to have a lot of conviction,” Allen said. “ You can’t be concerned about what other people think. You have to teach people how to treat you, set boundaries, and be your own cheerleader.”

 

Allen is open to various future opportunities in the entertainment industry. She said she considered a switch to the talent side as a talent lawyer, eventually setting her sights on heading a studio later in her career. And, as in any good television series, one is always anxious for the next installment. In Allen’s case, it’s surely going to be a hit.