Spotify Amps Up Fiction Podcast Effort

The music streaming giant announced on Wednesday that it is promoting Gimlet executive Mimi O’Donnell to the company’s head of scripted fiction.

Bringing More Scripted Fiction Content

The head of talk studios at Spotify, Julie McNamara, said that O’Donnell will help produce the new ambitious fiction programs for the service. This includes a still unnamed Jordan Peele project and a Caso 63 adaptation with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac.

In the six years she spent at Gimlet, O’Donnel produced several star-studded series, including Sandra starring Alia Shawkat and Kristen Wiig. She also worked on Motherhacker starring Carrie Coon and Pedro Pascal. Before that, the podcast network was best known for culture shows such as Reply All.

She will report to McNamara and the incoming managing director of Gimlet following Lydia Polgreen’s departure earlier this year.

The Background

Batman Unburied came to Spotify in May and notably unseated The Joe Rogan Experience. This has been the turning point for the audio company that is now likely to offer more shows of this kind to its 422 million users.

The popular Batman podcast was the first show to come out of a 2020 licensing deal between Spotify and Warner Bros. Since then, the music platform has had the rights to feature DC Comics and other Warner Bros. characters in its podcasts.

Expanding Offerings

Spotify has been busy lately, attempting to offer new kinds of content to its users. Earlier this month, it acquired the Wordle-inspired music trivia game Heardle. The music streaming giant plans to make it a part of its music streaming app at some point.

The company previously announced that it is working on a social feature called Community. It’s also experimenting with adding NFT galleries to artist profiles.