{"id":2176071,"date":"2025-11-25T04:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T04:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2176071"},"modified":"2025-11-25T04:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T04:27:11","slug":"dana-walden-on-championing-original-voices-as-disney-exec-honored-at-international-emmys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/dana-walden-on-championing-original-voices-as-disney-exec-honored-at-international-emmys\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana Walden On Championing Original Voices As Disney Exec Honored At International Emmys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tDana Walden<\/a>, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, recalled the early days of Glee<\/em>, the Ryan Murphy<\/a> musical comedy-drama series that had a tough initial reception but taught her some key lessons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFirst, through Ryan\u2019s eyes, I got to understand how harsh criticism feels to a creator, particularly if the story is personal,\u201d she said as she accepted the Founders Award at the International Emmys<\/a> in New York City Monday night.<\/p>\n

\n\tSecond, \u201cthe feedback wasn\u2019t really for him, it was for the executives. It was going to be our job to protect Glee<\/em> and teach an audience how to understand something different and original.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGlee<\/em>, co-created with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, premiered on Fox in 2009 and won Murphy won a Primetime Emmy Award for directing the pilot episode. The series ran for six seasons. Before Disney acquired Fox in 2018, Walden was the Chair and CEO of Fox Television Group. She was introduced by Murphy, who said Glee <\/em>was the worst testing pilot in history. It wasn\u2019t, Walden said, \u201ctrust me. But it also didn\u2019t get the reaction it deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a loving introduction before Walden took the stage, Murphy recalled a meeting soon after he had his first hit Nip\/Tuck<\/em> in the early 2000s. \u201cI still felt rudderless,\u201d he said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t ask me about my next hit idea, or audition me in any way. She asked me, \u2018What do you want to be in this world and how do I help you get there?\u2019 And I thought, this is the person I have been looking for my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy approach has never been complicated,\u201d Walden said. \u201cFind singular voices \u2026 and help them do their best work; And most importantly, build a culture of creative risk-taking. I saw the power of that early in my career working on shows like\u00a0The X-Files, Ally McBeal, 24,<\/em> The Simpsons\u00a0<\/em>and so many more. Those shows all have two things in common \u2013 they were creatively ambitious and excellent. And, though they were made in the U.S., they were also huge hits around the world. Because great storytelling is truly universal,\u201d she told a packed ballroom at the New York Hilton.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know this award is typically given to the people who create the stories. And rightfully so. But I view this honor as recognition of a vital partnership. One that exists between the creator who dreams the dream, and the team that believes in it enough to clear the path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWalden oversees Disney\u2019s full portfolio of entertainment media, news and content businesses globally, including shared oversight of Disney+ and Hulu, as well as technology and ad sales. Under her leadership, Disney+ operates in more than 150 countries and 40 languages.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Disney\u2019s board of directors set to name a new CEO early next year Walden is considered one of the leading candidates to replace chief executive Robert Iger. She offered a shout-out to her company and her boss tonight. The belief \u201cthat great stories can come from anywhere and belong to everyone is at the heart of the Walt Disney company. It is also a guiding principle of my mentor and friend, Bob Iger. Bob\u2019s always championed the simple yet powerful idea that if you get the storytelling right, everything else will follow. No matter how much the world changes, people will always want to feel connected, and they will always need to be entertained. And no one does that better than Disney.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe International Emmys hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos is underway handing out awards in 16 categories.<\/p>\n

\n\tJo\u00e3o Roberto Marinho<\/a>, chairman and president of Grupo Globo, was honored with the directorate award.<\/p>\n

\n\tRobert Halmi, CEO of Great Point Studios, is Gala chair. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dana Walden, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, recalled the early days of Glee, the Ryan Murphy musical comedy-drama series that had a tough initial reception but taught her some key lessons. \u201cFirst, through Ryan\u2019s eyes, I got to understand how harsh criticism feels to a creator, particularly if the story is personal,\u201d she said as she accepted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2176072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[309887,416577,316248],"class_list":["post-2176071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-dana-walden","tag-international-emmys","tag-ryan-murphy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Dana-Walden-On-Championing-Original-Voices-As-Disney-Exec-Honored.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176073,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176071\/revisions\/2176073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2176072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}