Gracenote Studio Systems’ Diversity Spotlight is opening doors in the entertainment industry and highlighting talent in front of and behind the camera. Launched during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, the Diversity Spotlight is a database that provides information on talent and projects across the entertainment industry. Producers, casting directors, and others in the industry can use diversity-specific criteria that open up rising diverse talent to more opportunities.

Collaboration and Representation

The information found in this database is only available through collaborating with organizations focused on lifting up diverse voices in the entertainment industry. Nielsen recently announced their partners for the launch of the Diversity Spotlight in a press release. The initial collaborators are IllumiNative, Gold House, RespectAbility, National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), and CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment). 

In an interview with EnVi at the Sundance Film Festival, Patricia Ratulangi, the Vice President of Global Communications for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Nielsen, shared the company’s vision for what the Diversity Spotlight can do with even more input and greater diversity. “We want to expand the advocacy partners because they know better than we do, right? They know the community groups better than we do. But they also know…about what makes good representation.”

In a press release from Nielsen, Trent Wheeler, the Chief Product Officer of Gracenote, also said,“The expertise of our advocacy group partners combined with the unmatched scale of Gracenote data and the reach of Studio System hold the promise to accelerate representative content creation and bring real change to Hollywood.”

Meaningful Metadata

In addition, Gracenote has a program called Inclusion Analytics, which measures how much support diverse projects get and how much diversity is really out there. This information, combined with the accessibility provided by the Diversity Spotlight, creates an open door aimed towards bringing more diverse and representative stories to the screen.

Bing Chen, the CEO and Co-Founder of Gold House, shared how crucial these opportunities, made up of input from Nielsen and the collaborators, are. “The discovery of diverse talent is critical for impactful Asian Pacific representation on screen, and resources, such as Diversity Spotlight, are important for casting agents, producers, and executives to connect the right talent with the right story,” Chen stated.

Pushing Ahead

As the Diversity Spotlight launches, it’s also launching names and products forward that may not have gotten the same amount of visibility just 10 years ago. Collaborators like Gold House and RespectAbility are doing the work to spotlight talent in their communities and continue to push the industry forward. “They’re not stopping. They’re continuing to push the pedal to the metal when it comes to those diverse talent projects,” Ratulangi said.

With the Diversity Spotlight out in the world, it’s only a matter of time until the effects play out. Through supporting diversity across the entertainment industry and providing connections, Gracenote’s Diversity Spotlight is going to bring a new shine to the silver screen and TV.

Looking for more Sundance coverage? Check out the API love stories EnVi saw during the festival here!

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