Chris Grant is CEO of Electus, the first integrated multimedia entertainment studio to unite producers, creators, advertisers and distributors under one roof and produce all forms of content for distribution across a variety of platforms around the world. Grant joined Electus in November 2011 and is responsible for overseeing the company’s next phase of growth across global and domestic TV, digital and branded entertainment.
Grant previously served as President of Shine International, the global sales and distribution arm responsible for distributing programming from the Shine Group companies, including Reveille, Kudos, Dragonfly, Princess Productions, Brown Eyed Boy, Shine TV, Shine France, Shine Germany and Shine Australia as well as Metronome, the Nordic region’s leading production group. Since launching the company in February 2008, Grant propelled Shine International to become one of the world’s top television distributors, ranking number six in Broadcast’s Annual Distributor’s Survey. Grant was a leader in exploiting worldwide intellectual property rights through scripted and alternative television formats, while managing the creative, casting and storyline processes of formats sold for international production. He transformed formats including MasterChef, The Biggest Loser, The Moment of Truth and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? into truly global television brands.
Under Grant’s supervision, smash culinary format MasterChef has broken viewing records, becoming Australia’s most watched non-sporting broadcast ever with one in four of the population tuning in, and attracting nearly half of Israel’s viewing audience to become the country’s highest rated non-sports program in the last decade. The format is now locally produced in more than 20 countries and on air in 145 territories.
Prior to founding Shine International, Grant served as a Managing Director of independent studio Reveille, overseeing the company’s International Distribution and Creative Affairs division, where he was responsible for distributing all of Universal Television Group’s formats overseas. Reveille is known for popular, award-winning series including The Biggest Loser, The Office and Ugly Betty. Grant joined Reveille when it was formed in 2002 after working at the William Morris Agency.
Grant currently serves as Co-Chair of the NATPE Board of Directors and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. For the past six years, he has served as a mentor for Fulfillment Fund, which provides low-income students with the support necessary to graduate from high school and attend college. Grant graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and lives in Los Angeles, California.