Liz Gateley Leaves Spotify To Launch Damsel Media Focused On Gen Z Content.

Liz Gateley has left her post as Head of Development of Originals at Spotify Studios, and launched her own production company called Damsel Media. Gateley, who was the fourth employee hired for Spotify Studios in 2019 as it expanded into podcast show development, will return to roots in TV with the new company. Damsel Media will focus on developing shows for television, film, direct-to-consumer, and digital media—with the common thread of Gen Z as its targeted audience.

“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,” says Gateley in a statement. “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.” 

During her half dozen years at Spotify, Gateley is credited with bringing Wind of Change, a co-production with Pineapple and Crooked Media, onboard as an exclusive original for Spotify. The critically acclaimed series won the Webby in 2020 for Best Podcast of the Year. She also oversaw the overall Warner Bros./DC partnership deal with Spotify, launching the global hit Batman Unburied, which was adapted into eight languages and launched in nine countries, Gateley also worked alongside Kim Kardashian on her first podcast on criminal justice The System: The Case of Kevin Keith. 

More recently, Gateley led Spotify’s most push into video across the platform, developing What Now? With Trevor Noahwhich is currently in its second season. Gateley also spearheaded the creation of Spotify Pictures, which adapts podcasts and IP from the platform into a visual medium, launching RapCaviar Presents as a documentary.

After a career in television, Gateley was hired by Spotify in February 2019 after serving as EVP/head of programming at Lifetime television. The move to Spotify reunited Gateley with Spotify’s former Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff, who previously was programming head at Lifetime.

Gateley left Lifetime in May 2018 after a three-year tenure overseeing the development of scripted, movies and unscripted original content at the TV network. Before that she ran her own production company from 2011-2015. And prior to that, Gateley was head of development at MTV from 2003 to 2011 where she also worked with Spotify’s former Head of Studios Courtney Holt.

Gateley is known for her work focused on the female young adult audiences. Over the past two decades, Gateley has created and produced TV shows including “Laguna Beach,” “The Hills,” “16 & Pregnant,” “Teen Mom,” “Teen Wolf,” “Surviving R. Kelly,” and “Learning to Skateboard in a War Zone (If You’re a Girl),” which won the Oscar in 2020 for Documentary Short.

Damsel Media has partnered with the TV production companies 32 Flavors and Haymaker East on the company’s first two projects. Casting is underway on both. Gateley has also signed with CAA and with Tara Senior & Todd Weinstein at Weinstein/Senior.