BRAVO MEDIA EXPANDS PRODUCTION TEAM WITH THE ADDITION OF LESLIE FARRELL AND JEFF OLIVER
New York - August 19, 2013 - After recently being nominated for five Primetime Emmys(R), Bravo Media tapped award-winning producer Leslie Farrell and former Food Network executive Jeff Oliver as Vice Presidents of Current Production. The announcement was made today by Shari Levine, Senior Vice President, Current Production/Original Programming for Bravo Media, to whom they will both report. Both based in New York, Leslie Farrell will serve as executive producer on "The Millionaire Matchmaker," and new series "Extreme Guide to Parenting," while Jeff Oliver will serve as executive producer on "Fashion Queens," and "Game of Crowns."
Emmy(R), Peabody and two-time duPont-Columbia Award-winning producer, Farrell has been making documentaries for more than twenty years. She served as Series Producer and Producer/Director for "African American Lives," a four-hour documentary series tracing Black history through genealogy and DNA science. The series, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and featuring Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones and Whoopi Goldberg premiered nationally on PBS in 2006. Farrell is also known for documentaries she created for HBO including "Sports on the Silver Screen," and "Journey of the African American Athlete," both highly successful award-winning films. She began her career at Blackside, Inc. in Boston, where she directed, wrote, and produced "Brother's Keeper" as part of the acclaimed national PBS series "America's War on Poverty." In subsequent years, she continued making films for PBS, including "The Challenge of Freedom," which aired nationally as part of WNET's landmark series "Slavery and the Making of America."
Jeff Oliver is a producer and former Food Network executive with credits that include "Big Brother," "Last Comic Standing" and "The Simple Life." At Food Network, Jeff oversaw some of the network's most successful shows, including "Cupcake Wars," "Worst Cooks In America," "Food Network Star," and "Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell." He also developed the series "Cutthroat Kitchen," as well as Cooking Channel's "The Freshman Class" and "The Culinary Adventures Of Baron Ambrosia." Prior to being at Food Network, Jeff was a freelance Supervising Producer in Los Angeles working with production companies that included Magical Elves, Bunim/Murray Productions, Ryan Seacrest Productions and World Of Wonder. A graduate of McGill University, Jeff has an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College (CUNY) and his debut novel, "Failure To Thrive," was published by DC Books in 2012.
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