Speaker Laura Palumbo Johnson

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Laura Palumbo Johnson

Co-Founder and Executive Producer

Magilla Entertainment, LLC

Laura Palumbo Johnson is co-founder and executive producer at Magilla Entertainment, one of the unscripted industry’s biggest suppliers of reality and nonfiction television content. She oversees all financial and operational aspects of the business as well as production, facilities and business strategy.

Magilla is home to a diverse portfolio of series, with current and recent hits including Moonshiners, Master Distiller, Diesel Brothers and Dirty Mudder Truckers, all for Discovery; Jailhouse Redemption and Moonshiners: Smoke Ring for discovery+; Long Island Medium and I Love a Mama’s Boy for TLC; HGTV franchises Beachfront Bargain Hunt and Lakefront Bargain Hunt, as well as its renovation spin-offs Beachfront Bargain Hunt: Renovation and Lakefront Bargain Hunt: Renovation; Magnolia Network’s Rooms We Love; The Cars That Built the World, American Ripper and one-hour documentary Rise Up:
The Moment That Changed America for History Channel and more. All told, Magilla series represent 150+ seasons of television across the content landscape, and they continue to be in production and development on myriad projects for a range of networks and streamers.

Johnson launched Magilla with partner Matthew Ostrom in 2009; she was previously focused on production management, operations and international sales at a TV start-up, where she supervised hundreds of episodes of television, including nine seasons of HGTV’s Don’t Sweat It, AMC’s Movie’s 101 and the creation of the Food Network mega-hit Chopped.
Johnson began her career in the New York City television world, working on various crews and serving as
a studio production manager on live satellite media tours. She honed her craft in lifestyle and studio
television on the Hearst syndicated hit B. Smith with Style. Johnson also serves on the executive
committee and is a founding member of NPACT, the leading organization representing producers of
unscripted content.