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Caitlin Foito ’97
Senior Vice President of Development, Miramax Television
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aitlin Foito is devoting her career to telling stories. As Senior VP of Development at Miramax Television, she is currently running the television department and overseeing all pitches and series in development and pre-production.
“I work with writers to shape and hone their series pitches, whether it’s a germ of an idea or more fully formed,” explains Caitlin, speaking on the phone from her office in Los Angeles. “First I help them present their idea to buyers. Once it’s set up at a network or streamer, I, as the studio partner, advocate for the creator and help them see their vision through the writing process, production, and into series.” Before landing at Miramax in 2018, Caitlin served as VP of drama development for ABC Studios, where she oversaw the development of The Crossing, For the People, and The Catch for ABC, as well as Code Black for CBS. Before her move to ABC Studios in 2014, she was director of drama programming for Fox, where she developed numerous pilots and series, including Almost Human and Empire. Prior to that, she spent seven years at Fox Television Studios, where she oversaw Lights Out and The Riches.
Giving Stories New Life “TV is a really powerful medium,” says Caitlin, who is married to writer Evan Bleiweiss. Their son, Archie, is two years old, and daughter, Zelda, (named after Zelda Fitzgerald) is six. “You want to entertain first and foremost, but you endeavor to produce series that are a positive contribution.”
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At Miramax Caitlin decides which film titles in the library will be developed into television shows. “If we’re going to update titles there needs to be an obvious reason to do so,” reveals Caitlin. “If we’re doing a remake, I want to somehow elevate the source material. I’m mostly looking to identify which stories in our library will resonate and feel topical, but a series can also give a title new life; you can dig in and tell a much more nuanced version of the story in a series than you can in a film.”
