Lighthearted Entertainment Employee Directory

Media Production11-50 Employees

Lighthearted Entertainment® was established in 1992 by CEO Howard Schultz as an independently-owned television production company, specializing in all forms of non-scripted programming. Schultz and his team are fiercely committed to translating their creativity, energy, and ideas into shows that tap into the zeitgeist of our culture. As a result, Lighthearted Entertainment® has created and produced literally thousands of hours of very diverse television shows for cable, syndicated and network television, including the recent worldwide television smash hits: Fox's THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, ABC's EXTREME MAKEOVER, and MTV's NEXT!. Even the show that began it all 16 years ago — Fox's syndicated hit STUDS — broke ratings records, and gave birth to an entirely new genre known as "relationship shows," a television trend that continues today. In 2011, Rob LaPlante joined Lighthearted as Senior Vice President of Development and Jeff Spangler was elevated to VP of Development. Lighthearted is intent on bringing the most entertaining reality and non-scripted programming to the television screen, currently developing a variety of shows for U.S. cable and broadcast networks, in addition to broadcasters overseas. The newly established development team at Lighthearted Entertainment is excited and energized to continue creating and developing ground-breaking, dynamic shows and build upon their previous success. The company's name comes from a lyric to a Van Morrison song, "If my heart could do my thinking and my head began to feel, would I look upon the world anew and know what's truly real?" "I wanted my company founded on the principle of thinking with my heart, instead of my head," says Howard Schultz, "Inspiration is like a bolt of light and I wanted my heart to take it from there."

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