ATLANTA — Atlanta, aka ‘ The Hollywood of the South’ just welcomed its newest addition to the entertainment industry. Wendy Schofield made history as the first Black woman to become director of Operations at West End Production Park Film and TV Studios.
Schofield, who owned her marketing and production company, had WEPP studios as one of her clients for a year before being hired. It’s something that she never expected to happen.
“We were just talking and they just said, 'Hey, you know what? We need somebody to be over the WEPP. You've got a great history, a background in broadcasting and in production. We'd love for you to take this position,' and so that's how it happened,” she said.
Schofield joins the small percentage of women in the entertainment space in the U.S. According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film, women account for 25% of those working in key behind-the-scenes roles on the top 250 grossing films in 2021. This includes directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematographers.
Schofield tells 11Alive of the excitement behind being the first Black woman in her role at WEEP.
“It feels awesome to be the first Black woman in this role as director of operations at the West Production Park. What I do is negotiate contracts. I make sure that the day-to-day operations are going smoothly and everything's working the way it should and everything's going the way it should. So it's just basically the day-to-day,” she said.
WEPP is responsible for production on projects such as Ozark, Stranger Things and Avengers: Endgame.
The Miami native started off her career in broadcasting as an entertainment reporter for the Tom Joyner Morning Show where she interviewed celebrities in Dallas.
Before entering the world of radio and television, Schofield was a cheerleader at the University of Miami. While studying for her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing she was also cheering on the sidelines for the Miami Dolphins.
Schofield continued to make her mark in the world of radio and television. She went on to have her own radio morning drive show.
She then became the radio host of Matchmaker Wendy. Schofield returned to television when she became a reporter for NBC Universal for the evening and afternoon news.
It was not long before Schofield started having ideas of creating her own TV shows that led her to launch a production company.
“I started having ideas for great TV shows and a format and production company and now here I am,” she said.
In her new role, Schofield hopes to continue to produce exciting projects and gain recognition for WEEP.
“Our goals are to produce great content and to house great productions and to get our name out there as one of the top production studios in Atlanta and in the world,” Schofield said.
To learn more about WEPP in Atlanta click here.