Daria Cercek Named Paramount’s Co-President of Film

Paramount's Daria Cercek and Michael Ireland Courtesy of Brad Buckman/Paramount Pictures;Justine Ungaro/Paramount Pictures

Film executive Daria Cercek is moving to Paramount, where she will act as co-president of film.

She joins film co-president Michael Ireland, who joined the studio in November. Both will report to Paramount’s motion picture group president Emma Watts. Cercek will assume her new role on Jan. 11.

According to the studio, Cercek and Ireland will work alongside Watts to oversee the studio’s slate and film operations from development through production, including such high-profile upcoming projects as the newest films in the Transformers and Star Trek franchises, Lost City of D and a sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog, among others.

Said Watts in a statement: “The key to success is having the right team, and having watched Daria and Mike grow over the years, I am quite confident their combined creativity, enthusiasm and extensive talent relationships will be a huge windfall for Paramount. They believe passionately in people and projects which makes for better films.”

Cercek has spent the last two-plus years at New Line, acting as executive vp production and was instrumental bringing in Don’t Worry Darling, the period thriller from Olivia Wilde, to the company. The high-profile movie is now in production with Chris Pine, Florence Pugh and Harry Styles starring.

Prior to that, Cercek spent eight years at Fox, reaching the position of senior vp production. She oversaw the studio’s last three X-Men movies and was known for championing comedies such as The Heat, which was the first script she bought, and The Other Woman. She was also the studio’s point person on Paul Feig projects.

Cercek also worked for Scott Stuber when the Netflix film head was a solo producer and was an assistant to Paula Wagner when the latter ran United Artists.