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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Jeff Shell | |
|---|---|
 Shell in 2013 | |
| Born | 1965 (age 60–61) Michigan, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Media executive |
| Title | President, Paramount Skydance (2025–2026) CEO, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (2013–2019) CEO, NBCUniversal (2019–2023) |
| Spouse | Laura Shell |
| Relatives | Dana Shell Smith (sister) |
Jeff Shell is an American media executive who served as president of Paramount Skydance Corporation from August 2025 to April 2026. He was the CEO for NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, from 2019 to 2023.[1]
Shell is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied economics and applied mathematics, and Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA.[2] He began his career at Salomon Brothers.[2]
In 2001, Shell was president of FOX Cable Network Group before joining Comcast in 2004, where he was president of Comcast Programming Group. In September 2013, Shell became the chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.[3] In 2019, it was announced that he would succeed Steve Burke as CEO of NBCUniversal.[4] Shell assumed the role on January 1, 2020, and reported directly to Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts.[5] In April 2008, Shell signed an open letter endorsing Barack Obama for the Pennsylvania primary.[6] He was named by President Barack Obama as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors replacing Sony Pictures executive Michael Lynton.[7]
In May 2020, The New York Times reported that Shell was considering replacing CNBC's current primetime offerings of business reality shows with right-wing talk shows, in a bid to appeal to conservative viewers.[8]
On April 23, 2023, Shell was fired from NBCUniversal after an investigation into sexual harassment, which began when a female employee filed a complaint against him.[9] Shell had an extramarital affair with the employee from 2012 to 2021, who was subsequently identified as CNBC reporter Hadley Gamble.[10] Variety reported that the law firm Gibson Dunn was hired to conduct the investigation, and corroborated the complaint after reviewing records of Shell and Gamble's email communications. Shell was then dismissed with cause, and did not receive any severance pay.[10]
Allegedly, Shell held a meeting in October 2024 while presidential candidate Donald Trump was making claims that the CBS news program 60 Minutes had "deceptively edited" an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris to benefit his Democratic challenger.
Shell allegedly pressured the CBS News brass to release the 60 Minutes transcript ahead of his company's merger with the network's parent Paramount Global, but CBS News president Wendy McMahon and executive producer Bill Owens pushed back, persuading Shell that folding under political pressure would be a bad move.
The case is currently before a mediator, who is facilitating discussions between both sides about a possible settlement. Staffers at the network have voiced their concerns over the matter, citing journalistic integrity, and Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr has opened a probe into the Harris edit and opened it up for public comment.[11]
On July 7, 2024, Paramount's board approved the deal to merge with Skydance.[12] The deal will close in two phases: first, a group of investors from Skydance will pay $2.4 billion in cash to purchase National Amusements, the parent company of Paramount Global; second, Paramount Global will pay its Class A and Class B stockholders $4.5 billion in cash and shares. In addition, Paramount will add $1.5 billion in primary capital to its balance sheet. The second phase will see an all-stock merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, valued at $4.75 billion. Equity holders in Skydance will get 317 million Class B shares, with a market value of $15 per share. Paramount Global would have 45 days to look for better or matching offers from other bidders before finalizing.[13][14] If Paramount were to find a better offer, Skydance would be entitled to a $400 million breakup fee payout from the company.[15] David Ellison would become chairman and CEO of the combined company with Shell as president.[16]
According to Paramount Global, the merger will inject significant capital into Paramount, helping to address its debt and enabling investments in new content and technologies.[17] It will support Paramount Global's expansion into other entertainment industries, such as animation, sports and video games, where it currently has less presence. Ellison's vision is for the new company "to be both a media and technology enterprise".[18] Skydance will benefit from greater resources and infrastructure, allowing it to produce more large-scale content. Additionally, Skydance will gain from Paramount's brands, intellectual property, and distribution network.[19]
On March 9, 2026, Jeff Shell was sued for $150M by R.J. Cipriani, a man claiming that Shell refused to help him produce a television series (entitled, Star Serenade), shared non-public information about the Paramount/Warner Bros merger, as well as for failing to pay Cipriani for crisis communications services.[20]
On April 8, 2026, as a result of the lawsuit by Cipriani, Shell departed from Paramount Skydance.[21][22]
On April 14, 2026, Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel was hit with a subpoena in the RJ Cipriani–Jeff Shell civil case. Cipriani’s attorneys are calling for the WME and TKO chief to appear for a deposition lasting up to seven hours on May 19 at their Beverly Hills law offices.[23]
Shell is married to Laura Fay Shell, who worked for Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as his planning deputy until 2005.[7] His sister is Dana Shell Smith,[24] and his brother is Dan Shell of IMG College.[25]
In 2015, he was awarded the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Human Relations Award by the American Jewish Committee.[24] Shell is a 2010 inductee into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[26]
In January 2019, Shell, along with Cindy Crawford, her husband Rande Gerber, Michael Meldman, and Jay Sures, announced they would purchase the Beverly Hills deli, Nate 'n Al, to keep its doors open after three generations of family ownership.[27][28]
Burke, 61, has not indicated what his next move may be.
AJC, an advocacy organization focusing on Israel and domestic issues, awarded Jeff Shell, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman, the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Human Relations Award — the highest honor AJC bestows upon members of the entertainment industry.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Jeff Shell is an American media executive who served as president of Paramount Skydance Corporation from August 2025 to April 2026. He was the CEO for NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, from 2019 to 2023.
On July 7, 2024, American media companies Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced a definitive agreement to merge in a deal valued at $8 billion, forming a new entity known as "Paramount Skydance Corporation". The agreement valued the newly formed entity at approximately $28 billion. In 2023, after grappling with debt and striving to remain competitive in the entertainment industry, Paramount's parent company, National Amusements, explored potential merger and acquisition opportunities for Paramount Global. Skydance reached a preliminary agreement on July 2, 2024, to perform a three-way merger between it, National Amusements, and Paramount to establish what was then known as "New Paramount". After the merger closed, Skydance Media CEO David Ellison became the chairman and CEO of the combined company and former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell became the president. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2025, pending required regulatory approvals, according to reports. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Commission (EC) approved the transaction in February 2025. On July 24, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. On August 1, 2025, Skydance announced that the transaction would close six days later, which occurred on August 7, 2025. Paramount chose to conclude The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after Colbert referred to the settlement on-air as a "big fat bribe". The move was widely seen as an attempt to appease Trump and Brendan Carr, who were targets and vocal critics of the show and Colbert, however Paramount stated that it was purely for financial reasons. After the merger went through, David Ellison made conservative-friendly changes to CBS News, including hiring political commentator Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief. Trump praised the decisions to hire Weiss and to cancel The Late Show.
Dana Shell Smith (born 1970) is a former American diplomat and career Foreign Service Officer who served as the United States Ambassador to Qatar from July 2014 to June 2017. She was confirmed by the Senate as the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar on July 10, 2014. Previously, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs from 2011 to 2014 and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Media.
Ghost in the Shell is a 2017 cyberpunk action thriller film directed by Rupert Sanders and written by Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, and Ehren Kruger. It is the first live-action film adaptation based on the Japanese Ghost in the Shell franchise envisioned by Masamune Shirow, and stars Scarlett Johansson, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Chin Han, and Juliette Binoche. Set in an ultramodern near future when the line between humans and robots is blurring, the plot follows Major Mira Killian, a cyborg supersoldier who attempts to stop a mysterious terrorist and investigate her past. Filming for Ghost in the Shell took place in New Zealand at Stone Street Studios from February to June 2016, with additional filming in Hong Kong that June. The film premiered in Tokyo on March 16, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2017, in IMAX, 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX. It grossed $169.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $110 million. Ghost in the Shell received mixed reviews, with praise for its cast performances, visual style, action sequences, cinematography and musical score, but criticism for its plot and lack of character development. The casting of non-Asian actors (particularly Johansson in the lead role) drew accusations of racism and whitewashing in the United States, although Mamoru Oshii, the director of the original anime film, stated that there was no basis for this accusation.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
