Ran Tellem, an iconic figure in The Mediapro Studio’s explosion on the international TV scene, is leaving the Madrid-based international film-TV giant where he served as its head of international content development from TMS’ launch in 2019.
Prior to that, he held the same position at Mediapro, which he joined in 2016.
Tellem’s exit, following on that of Grup Mediapro’s general manager Laura Fernández Espeso in December 2025 and Daniel Burman, appointed recently as Disney+ Latin American head of original content, signals the departure of three of the most iconic figures who had driven the transformation of Mediapro from a multinational holding of local operations around the world to an early leader in premium international TV co-production in Spain, Latin America and beyond.
That growth was built on a vision, embodied in “The Head,” starring John Lynch and Katharine O’Donnelly. “The Head” established a model for the studio – not to only ”to take some other party idea and package it. “The vision was to take great original ideas find partners around the world willing to make them together, to create original international content for the world,” Tellem has said.
Under Fernández Espeso and Mediapro founder Jaume Roures the ambition to work as a truly international player was already in place when Tellem joined Mediapro in 2016, bringing large experience as a primetime Emmy Award-winning executive producer on “Homeland,” and VP of programming at Israel’s Keshet over 2008-16.
Mediapro added other like-minded creators such as New Argentine Cinema leading light turned TV creator Daniel Burman, buying his Oficina Burman in early 2018.
One of the biggest production-distribution global powerhouses based out of Southern Europe with an H.Q. in Madrid and 53 offices spread around the world by 2024, spearheaded in series by Fernández Espeso, Tellem and Burman, The Mediapro Studio moved far quicker than most to find partners for ideas, emerging as a first-phase pioneer in international co-production, linking to make series, among many others, with Viacom (“Victoria Small”) on four series, Prime Video (“The Boarding School: Las Cumbres”), Sony Pictures Television (“Implacables: Mexico”), Lionsgate+ (“Express”) and Warner Bros. Discovery (“Las Bravas”).
Tellem’s goal in part, however, was to aim to create an English-language series that was not made in the U.S. or in the U.K., but was eligible for any TV screen around the world. In this sense, one of his finest achievements at The Mediapro Studio was the English-language “The Head,” made with Hulu Japan and HBO Asia and sold to over 90 countries with TMS retaining IP, whose development Tellem drove from the first through different writers and three seasons.
In conversation, Tellem has often talked about the “joy” of TV creation and being part of a writers’ room and the creative process. “I’m not a pure writer, nor pure producer nor pure salesman, pure businessman but I can hold all of these in one hand and make something happen, which gives you a huge advantage when you’re sitting on a table.”
That said, “when a writer submits his first draft, he doesn’t want you to just clap and say, ‘Wow, this is brilliant,’ he’s looking for somebody who he can have a face-to-face dialogue of how to make his work better.” Tellem has explained, talking about “The Head” and how creation often spills over into friendship.
Few TV executives have such a larger sense than Tellem of the craft of storytelling, its traditions, evolution and power and can pitch better the fascination of a story, teasing out it essential human drama.
He leaves The Mediapro Studio at a time when it has become more difficult to get a greenlight original stories but, ironically, international co-production on any series of ambition is becoming the new normal, and the need for originality to cut through the crowd has never been larger.
“TV is changing, content is evolving, it’s an exciting moment to be creating, to use experience mixed with excitement and innovation to make the world of content,” Tellem has enthused.
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