Valerie Meraz is the Senior Vice President of Content Acquisitions and Strategy for WarnerMedia Entertainment owned by AT&T. She’s a senior leader on a team which negotiates deals for content including films and off-network television series for use on the networks TNT, TBS, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, Turner Classic Movies, HBO Max and formerly FilmStruck. The content she and her colleagues acquire for linear networks supports original programs and currently accounts for approximately 90% of the programming on those networks.
Valerie negotiates deals for new shows and re-licenses on major broadcast television series such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, American Dad, NCIS New Orleans and Supernatural. She also acquires box office hits such as Wonder Woman, Beauty and the Beast, and Marvel films (including Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok). She was an integral part of making TNT & TBS the basic cable home for the entire Star Wars franchise, which includes the 6 classic films and the newer films in the franchise such as Solo: A Star Wars Story and Episode IX.
Meraz joined Turner after serving as Vice President of Content Acquisitions for Showtime Networks, Inc., where she oversaw the evaluation and acquisition of content for Showtime and its multiplex channels. While at Showtime, Meraz negotiated deals for the acquisition of feature films, documentaries, short films, acquired series, and stand-up comedy specials.
Prior to joining Showtime, Valerie worked in feature film development at Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. She began her career at 20th Century Fox in the exhibitor services group as a sales trainee and was soon promoted to a position in international theatrical promotions.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Valerie holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s degree in motion picture producing from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. In 2016, she won both a Luminary Award from the National Association of Multi-Ethnicities in Communications and the Power BrokHer Award from Women in Film and Television of Atlanta. In 2017, she received the Most Powerful and & Influential Woman award from the Georgia Leadership Conference. During her tenure at Turner, Valerie has also participated in leadership courses through Ascent at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the NAMIC Executive Leadership Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She will be attending Women in Cable and Telecommunication’s Betsy Magness Leadership Program this fall.
