Amazon Studios Chief Roy Price Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Claims
Roy Price, the head of Amazon’s television and film production unit, will leave the company following sexual harassment allegations that came to light over the past year.
An spokesperson confirmed to Fortune on Tuesday that Price has resigned from his role as the head of Amazon Studios less than a week after the company placed the streaming executive on indefinite leave. That move came following reports detailing claims from an executive producer on two Amazon TV series who said that Price sexually harassed her in 2015.
The producer, Isa Hackett, told the Hollywood Reporter last week about an incident two years ago when Price allegedly sexually harassed her, including making repeated lewd comments and propositioning her. The Information first reported on the allegations in an August article revealing that Amazon had investigated the matter two years ago, but the company did not suspend Price until this week. Hackett is an executive producer on the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle and Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. (Both shows are based on the works of Hackett’s father, sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick.)
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Amazon said last week that Amazon Studios COO Albert Cheng would run the unit in Price's absence, but it is unclear now if Cheng will take on a permanent role leading the studio now that Price is not returning at all. (Deadline reports that Amazon could look to replace Price with a female studio head. One rumored possibility: Paramount TV president Amy Powell.)
Price is a Hollywood veteran (his father ran studios at Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios) who joined Amazon in 2004 and helped build the e-commerce giant’s streaming entertainment business into a powerhouse that now competes with the likes of as well as traditional movie and television studios. Under Price, Amazon has produced award-winning TV series and won multiple Academy Awards earlier this year for the first time.
Price’s departure from Amazon also comes during a month in which an ever-growing list of high-profile women have come forward to speak out against sexual harassment from powerful men in Hollywood. The central figure has been disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is currently under criminal investigation after a series of women accused him of sexual harassment and assault.
See original article on Fortune.com
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