Walt Disney Studios has tapped Julie Ann Crommett, who as Google’s first ever entertainment industry educator-in-chief advocated for more representation of women in science and technology roles on screen, for a newly created position focused on the promotion of diversity.
In her role as vp multicultural audience engagement, Crommett will lead outreach and market research with the goal of driving engagement with multicultural viewers and consumers.
While at Google, Crommett — who was named to THR‘s 2016 Next Gen Execs list — led a team of engineers who consulted with Hollywood to advocate for more diverse representation of coders and engineers in film and TV projects.
Her team also worked with the Geena Davis Institute on the creation of its Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient, which has measured how much screen time and speaking time men and women got in the top 100 grossing films of 2014 and 2015. She previously worked at NBCUniversal, where she encouraged diversity behind the camera through its Directing Fellowship Program and Writers on the Verge initiatives.
Crommett, who was born in Puerto Rico, has spoken about how her devotion to this work comes from her own life. “I didn’t see people who looked like me on TV or shared my experiences until Ugly Betty,” she told THR in November.
Crommett serves on the boards of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers and Women in Animation.
