EXCLUSIVE: Lena Waithe is changing course for Hillman Grad, the company she founded in 2018 and has been building for the past seven years. The full-service media outfit is scaling back significantly to become a production banner for its Emmy-winning principal, who plans to refocus on purely creative endeavors as a creator, writer-producer and performer.
That is resulting in the departures of most of the staff including Hillman Grad CEO Rishi Rajani, who, working alongside Waithe, has been leading the company’s expansion, and Naomi Funabashi, head of development TV and film. The duo will stay on as producers with Waithe on projects developed during their tenure in addition to pursuing their own venture. Rajani and Funabashi are expected to launch a company together, I hear.
For the past seven years, Hillman Grad’s focus has been on giving opportunities to up-and-coming talent from BIPOC and other marginalized communities, including first-time filmmakers whose smaller-budget movies the company produced. That included A.V. Rockwell’s feature film debut A Thousand and One, which received the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Award for best first feature; and Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version, which was awarded best screenplay at the 2021 Gotham Awards.
Always a hard task, such movies, whose commercial appeal is often limited, are increasingly difficult to finance and sell in the current environment.
Going forward, the company’s support for emerging talent will continue through the Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, which provides opportunities for underrepresented storytellers to connect, grow and accelerate their career in television.
The future of talent incubator program Rising Voices is unclear as it is run by Indeed with Hillman Grad as a partner. Filmmaker Jingyi Shao, whose movie Chang Can Dunk for Disney+ was produced by Hillman Grad, came out of that program.
During its expansion, Hillman Grad established presence in branded entertainment, podcasting (via Hillman Grad Podcasts), books (via Hillman Grad Books, in partnership with Zando Projects) and music (via Hillman Grad Records, a JV with Def Jam that no longer exists). Hillman Grad Podcasts will continue, while Hillman Grad Books’ future is TBD as the imprint is run by Zando.
Additionally, the Broadway play Ain’t No Mo, on which Hillman Grad, named after the fictitious historically Black college, served as producer, was nominated for Best Play at the 2023 Tony Awards.
As Waithe is stepping away from running a large-scale production company, the projects she plans to be focusing at Hillman Grad 2.0 include The Chi, the Showtime drama series she created and executive produces, which recently scored its highest debut ever with Season 7 and was renewed for Season 8. Coming up for her are the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of the Disney Film Polly, on which she is collaborating with Debbie Allen; Waithe’s on-stage debut in Trinity (which she also wrote) at Baltimore Center Stage from February 12-March 8, 2026; as well as various film and TV projects in the works.
