A decade ago, the ABC drama series “Scandal” was headed for cancellation after it struggled through a little-watched seven-episode first season. Dungey, then head of drama programming for ABC Entertainment, had already fought for executive producer Shonda Rhimes to cast a Black actor in the lead. In the spring of , Dungey made an impassioned case for renewal to a roomful of Disney top brass, including then-ceo Bob Iger and then-disney/abc TV Group chief Anne Sweeney.
“I went into that room and said, ‘As a Black woman, I am speaking out in favor of this show, written and created by a Black woman and starring a Black woman. It deserves a second season,” Dungey recalls.
“Scandal” went on to run six more years as a buzzy hit that made Kerry Washington a star.
That rallying cry has stuck with Dungey during the turmoil of the past few years and the resurgence of social justice movements around race, gender and equity concerns.
“You’re not going to have storytelling that is meaningfully inclusive and diverse if you don’t have those people who are in the position of making these decisions,” Dungey says. “It’s more than just checking the box. It’s my job as a senior leader to make sure our writers’ rooms are populated the right way and that our director slate looks the way we want it to look — and to have those hard conversations when it isn’t that way.”
It’s that spirit of doing the hard work that has drawn Dungey to Los Angeles-based Children’s Institute, where she is a board member. The nonprofit organization specializes in cutting through red tape to get children and families services they need, from early childhood education programs to parental support groups to aid for those involved in the juvenile justice system. The nonprofit works with about , families a year through its programs in public schools and at multiple Children’s Institute centers in the Los Angeles area.
Dungey became involved with Children’s Institute after the death of her close friend and former ABC colleague, Suzanne Patmore-gibbs, who had been a board member. Patmore-gibbs’ father asked Dungey to assume the board seat after his daughter died unexpectedly at the age of in .
Children’s Institute’s work to break the cycle of poverty for underprivileged families has been eye-opening for Dungey, who is also a founding board member of girls empowerment organization Step Up.
“What I love is that the services are both easily accessible and very hands-on for families who are in need,” she says of Children’s Institute. “I’m a big believer in where your journey begins really shapes the course of your life.”
On the second Monday of September, just one week ahead of her one-year anniversary as president of Condé Nast Entertainment, Agnes Chu attended her first Met Gala. She walked the red carpet outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Inside, she sat at a table opposite Elon Musk, where she took in a tribute to Broadway and Justin Bieber’s “jaw-dropping” live performance. She also had a bit of a “geeky girl” reaction when meeting “Game of Thrones” stars Kit Harington and Rose Leslie.
But beyond the glitz and glamour of celebrity run-ins, Chu’s first Met Gala held larger significance. The function doubled as a litmus test for the new global content strategy of Condé Nast Entertainment, the multimedia arm of the storied magazine company — which counts Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Wired among its Tiffany brands — and is focused on targeting audiences any way they can be reached, via the pages of magazines or social media, in movie theaters or across streaming platforms.
“It was really palpable to feel the appreciation, but also the excitement, about such a culture-defining event,” Chu told Variety in a Zoom interview after the soiree. “You can see from the results.”
And those results certainly were impressive. Vogue’s Met content pulled in more than million global views across all social platforms, with audiences watching more than million minutes’ worth. Upwards of million people tuned in as Keke Palmer and Ilana Glazer hosted the brand’s exclusive livestream. CNE also produced behind-the-scenes videos of celebrities like event co-chair Billie Eilish, Blackpink’s Rosé and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez getting ready for the event, as well as a retrospective video with Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and U.S. editor-in-chief and Condé Nast’s chief content officer, breaking down Met Gala looks over the years.