| Robert Greenblatt | |
| Birth Date: | 1959/1960 (age 59-60) |
| Birth Place: | Rockford, Illinois, USA |
| Nationality: | American |
| Alma Mater: | University of Southern California University of Wisconsin University of Illinois Boylan Catholic High School[1] |
| Occupation: | Television executive |
| Notable Works: | 9 to 5 |
| Television: | The Voice Parenthood Chicago Fire |
| Awards: | Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television Drama |
Robert Greenblatt (born 1959/1960) is an American television executive, former Chairman of NBC Entertainment[2] [3] [4] and former Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. He has since launched his production company, The Green Room.[5]
Greenblatt was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, USA.[6] He was raised Catholic and attended Boylan Catholic High School.[7] He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre management from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin's Madison School of Business. He also earned a Master of Fine Arts from the USC School of Cinema-Television's Peter Stark Producing Program.[3]
Greenblatt began his television career at the Fox Broadcasting Company, where he ran prime-time programming and developed such shows as the original Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, The X-Files, and Party of Five.[2] [3]
From 1997 to 2003, Greenblatt was a producer (along with David Janollari through their production company, The Greenblatt Janollari Studio) of over a dozen series for various networks, including Six Feet Under, along with the 2005 miniseries Elvis and Gregory Nava's American Family for PBS.[2] [3]
From 2003 to 2010, Greenblatt was President of Entertainment for Showtime.[8] He supervised a slate of original programming that dramatically repositioned the pay channel as a leader in the premium cable business. Under his leadership, he developed and supervised award-winning shows like Weeds, Dexter, Californication, The Tudors, Nurse Jackie, and United States of Tara.[2] [3]
As a theatrical producer, Greenblatt developed the musical stage adaptation of 9 to 5, which premiered on Broadway in April 2009 and closed September 2009, with the National Tour starting in September 2010. It was nominated for four Tony Awards.[2] [3]
Greenblatt was the chairman of NBC Entertainment. He succeeded Jeff Gaspin in January 2011 after Comcast took control of the newly renamed NBCUniversal.[2] [9]
On March 4, 2019, Greenblatt was named as the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment as part of AT&T's reorganization of WarnerMedia. He oversaw HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT and TruTV.[10] He was responsible for helping oversee the development of HBO Max, the company's streaming service which launched in May 2020.[11] He was fired from WarnerMedia in August 2020 amid restructuring.[12] [13] More recently, he launched his own production company with a deal at Lionsgate.[14]
In August 2016, Greenblatt labeled then presidential candidate Donald Trump as "toxic" and "demented".[15]
Greenblatt is the first and only openly gay broadcast TV president.[16]