Stacey Sher has signed a first-look deal with MGM Television, anchoring her Shiny Penny Productions banner at the studio to develop and produce TV series across all platforms.
The deal was confirmed by both Variety and Deadline.
On paper, it’s a routine industry announcement. In practice, MGM just locked down one of the most consistently interesting producers working — someone whose filmography reads less like a résumé and more like a syllabus for what culturally ambitious storytelling looks like over three decades.
Sher is a two-time Oscar nominee: “Erin Brockovich” in 2001, “Django Unchained” in 2013. But the nominations don’t capture the range. “Pulp Fiction”. “Reality Bites”. “Gattaca”. “Out of Sight”. “Contagion”. “The Hateful Eight”. Deadline reports her body of work has collectively grossed nearly $2.7 billion at the global box office. That’s not an auteur with a niche. That’s infrastructure.
Her television credits reinforce the pattern. “Mrs. America,” the Emmy-nominated limited series about the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment and one of the sharpest pieces of feminist political television in recent memory, came out of Shiny Penny. So did “Sweet/Vicious”, the woefully underrated Jules & Ophelia revenge series that was canceled too soon and remains a cult touchstone for queer and feminist audiences. That show had a vision. It also had bad luck with network timing. The question now is whether MGM Television gives Sher the runway to take that kind of risk again.
Most recently, Sher produced A24’s “Heretic,” starring Hugh Grant in a mode nobody saw coming — which earned multiple award nominations. She’s also currently producing “Verity”, the Amazon MGM Studios adaptation starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, directed by Michael Showalter. Deadline also reports she’s set to produce a live-action “FernGully” reimagining for Amazon MGM Studios, based on the 1992 animated film.
Katie Aquino, Shiny Penny’s creative executive of film and television, comes with her. Aquino was an associate producer on both “Heretic” and “Verity”, will executive produce Amazon MGM Studios’ reimagining of “Baby Boom”, and is a USC School of Cinematic Arts grad who came up through CAA’s television talent department before joining Shiny Penny in 2021. That pipeline matters. She’s not a placeholder; she’s the succession plan.
“Stacey is a visionary producer with an extraordinary track record of bringing bold, culturally resonant stories to life across film and television,” said Lindsay Sloane, head of MGM Television, in a statement shared across both trades. “Her ability to champion distinctive voices and deliver unforgettable storytelling has shaped some of the most iconic projects of the past three decades.”
Boilerplate? Yes. But also accurate, which is rarer than it should be.
For queer audiences and creators, Sher’s move matters beyond the business mechanics. Beyond “Sweet/Vicious”, she executive-produced “Period. End of Sentence.”, the Academy Award-winning documentary short that spawned The Pad Project, a nonprofit focused on menstrual equity, and she currently sits on the organization’s board. The ACLU has recognized her for socially impactful storytelling. She received the Humanitas Prize for “Freedom Writers”. In 2024, she was awarded the Premio Raimondo Rezzonico at the Locarno Film Festival for her contributions to international film production.
This is a producer who has consistently bet on projects with something to say, and won enough of those bets to keep getting the calls.
MGM Television, operating under Amazon’s ownership, has been quietly building a slate with real ambition. Adding Sher to that infrastructure isn’t a prestige hire for optics. It’s a signal about what kinds of stories they want to be in business on. The next move is what she develops first. That’s the one to watch.
