BuzzFeed Studios Names Karolina Waclawiak Head Of Documentary

Matt Grobar
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Media industry veteran Karolina Waclawiak has been appointed to serve as Head of Documentary at BuzzFeed Studios.

She comes to the role after serving as Editor in Chief and Executive Editor of Culture at BuzzFeed News for more than seven years and will now oversee the development and production of docuseries and documentary features on behalf of BuzzFeed Studios, advancing the creation of impactful nonfiction narratives that align with the company’s commitment to investigative journalism.

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As part of her new role, Waclawiak will also oversee both scripted and documentary development for the BuzzFeed News archive, HuffPost, and other company properties. Currently, she’s in production on a multi-part investigation based on original reporting from BuzzFeed and HuffPost with Maxine Productions, which produced the Emmy-nominated Quiet on Set.

Stated BuzzFeed Studios President Richard Alan Reid on the appointment, “BuzzFeed Studios is thrilled to welcome Karolina Waclawiak as Head of Documentary, where she will oversee and grow our docuseries and documentary features covering topics from true crime to pop culture and beyond. Waclawiak’s experience running a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom and her extensive network of some of the best investigative reporters in the world will position us to get to fascinating and important stories first, run deep investigations and build valuable IP for topics and trends that deserve longform, premium programming in the doc space.”

Waclawiak collaborated with BuzzFeed Studios for several years even before joining the team, actively developing projects in the scripted and unscripted TV space. Her past work with the company included executive producing Oxygen’s true crime series The Case Died with Her, directed by Skye Borgman, as well as the Sky docuseries Once Upon a Time in Londongrad, directed by Jed Rothstein and co-produced with Rise Films, which built on BuzzFeed News’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigation From Russia with Blood. Additionally, she produced The Rise and Fall of LuLaRoe with Left/Right Productions for Discovery+, based on BuzzFeed News’s viral investigation into the LuLaRoe multi-level marketing scheme, and was involved with the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Follow This.

As Editor in Chief and Executive Editor of BuzzFeed News, Waclawiak played an important role in guiding the Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom through two national elections and helping refine its coverage strategy. Under her leadership, the Culture Desk earned two National Magazine Award nominations and numerous awards. Revitalizing the newsroom’s mission, focused on the intersection of internet life and real-life, while building a new leadership team and managing a broad range of coverage from internet culture to Breaking News to Tech, she also edited the culture-shifting feature “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation,” by Anne Helen Petersen, who coined the term millennial burnout.

Earlier in her career, Waclawiak was Deputy Editor at The Believer, where her editorial work earned her a National Magazine Award nomination. She’s also written several novels, including Life Events (which is currently in development for TV), The Invaders (which Ellen Fairey adapted as a series for ABC Studios), and How To Get Into the Twin Palms. In film, she co-wrote the Tribeca-premiering romantic drama AWOL with director Deb Shoval.

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