Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media Hires Paola Mardo As Head Of Audio

EXCLUSIVE: Proximity Media, the company behind Judas and the Black Messiah, is pushing further into podcasts with the hire of Pushkin Industries’ Paola Mardo.

Mardo joins the company, which is run by Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ludwig Göransson, Archie Davis and Peter Nicks, Kalia Booker King and Rebecca Cho as SVP and Head of Audio.

She was previously an executive producer at Malcolm Gladwell’s company, where she produced the Apple Fitness+ audio series Time to Walk. Before that, she produced podcasts including The Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough, KCRW’s Good Food and KPCC’s The Frame and she created and hosted Long Distance, a series about stories in the Filipino diaspora.

Mardo will build out a full audio team with the goal of producing multiple original podcasts as well as podcasts designed to supplement and support its films and television series. The company is behind the Official Judas and the Black Messiah podcast, which was produced in partnership with Roman Mars’ 99% Invisible and has had 720,000 downloads since its 2020 launch.

She will development and production of all podcast and audio projects and will report to Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian as well as work closely Proximity’s Head of Non-Fiction Pete Nicks, who recruited her to the company.

“We’re huge fans of podcasts here at Proximity and are so excited to have Paola joining the company to lead our audio division. Paola’s unique and fresh voice as a storyteller reflects our company’s vision for blazing new paths in audio storytelling”, said Nicks.

“The Proximity team’s mission to bring their powerful brand of storytelling to audiences everywhere has long inspired me as a creator” added Mardo. “Building Proximity Audio is an exciting opportunity not only to work with this phenomenal team, but to expand on their vision and bring new and compelling voices and stories to podcasting and audio. I can’t wait to get started.”