The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the members of the 2022 class of HPA Young Entertainment Professionals (YEP). Conceived to nurture the growth of the industry and elevate talented early-career professionals working in the media content industry, the YEP program has provided support, education, and encouragement to over 100 young professionals to date and has helped foster a diverse next generation of industry professionals.
Determined by application and endorsement, YEP class members are invited to engage in the full spectrum of HPA activities, including the HPA Tech Retreat and HPA Awards, as well as being paired with advanced career mentors in the second half of the year. YEPs network and learn from peers and mentors, beginning with an exclusive YEP event in January.
2022 YEP Class
- Barbara Banda, Netflix
- Eduardo Becerril, Entravision Communications
- Benjamin Cantle, Monster Lighting
- George Diaz, BuzzFeed
- Matthew Klein, Company 3
- Alexa Lowndes, Company 3
- Kathryn Lynyak, Netflix
- Jaxson McLennan, Freelance
- Alexandra Pann, 3BMG Productions
- Alexis Pfeffer, Freelance
- Beatriz Rodriguez, Amazon’s Hunters S2
- Nan Su, Youth Beat
Overseen by the YEP steering committee, the program was conceived by HPA’s Women In Post Committee, led by Kari Grubin and Loren Nielsen. Grubin remarked, “We are delighted to open another year of engagement for this truly talented group. Every year the relationships that form between our YEPs, mentors, and the HPA community inspire growth on all fronts.” The YEPs of past classes have voiced that while mentorship is significant in the program, the building of peer groups is invaluable.
Nielsen noted, “YEPs have built a tremendously supportive professional and peer community. To have a network to which you turn for information and camaraderie is profoundly meaningful. YEP has done that.”
The YEP program is supported by AVID.
The Grammys’ voting body is more diverse, with 66% new members. What does it mean for the awards?
For years, the Grammy Awards have been criticized over a lack of diversity — artists of color and women left out of top prizes; rap and contemporary R&B stars ignored — a reflection of the Recording Academy's electorate. An evolving voting body, 66% of whom have joined in the last five years, is working to remedy that.
At last year's awards, women dominated the major categories; every televised competitive Grammy went to at least one woman. It stems from a commitment the Recording Academy made five years ago: In 2019, the Academy announced it would add 2,500 women to its voting body by 2025. Under the Grammys' new membership model, the Recording Academy has surpassed that figure ahead of the deadline: More than 3,000 female voting members have been added, it announced Thursday.
"It's definitely something that we're all very proud of," Harvey Mason jr., academy president and CEO, told The Associated Press. "It tells me that we were severely underrepresented in that area."
Reform at the Record Academy dates back to the creation of a task force focused on inclusion and diversity after a previous CEO, Neil Portnow, made comments belittling women at the height of the #MeToo movement.
Since 2019, approximately 8,700 new members have been added to the voting body. In total, there are now more than 16,000 members and more than 13,000 of them are voting members, up from about 14,000 in 2023 (11,000 of which were voting members). In that time, the academy has increased its number of members who identify as people of color by 63%.
"It's not an all-new voting body," Mason assures. "We're very specific and intentional in who we asked to be a part of our academy by listening and learning from different genres and different groups that... Read More