Liesl Copland: From Cruises to Cannes

Film executive and content innovator Liesl Copland joins us for episode fourteen of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Over a glass of grenache, we discuss her winding road from Mickey Drexler’s GAP, to a brief stint as a cruise director, to the heyday of magazines, and her rise through independent film. As Netflix’s first chief of original content, a fifteen-year veteran of the Endeavor Companies, and most recently head of strategy at Participant, Liesl shares her seasoned perspective on media innovation. In Part 1 of a conversation we will return to with Liesl, we get deep into how the streaming wars and streaming cooldown has shaped the lives of story creators and story consumers alike. 

Liesl Copland has worked in the specialty film sector for most of her career, with the goal of democratizing distribution for unique, independently produced projects. She is a founding member of MATR Labs, and was formerly the Executive Vice President of Content Strategy at Participant. Prior to Participant, she was a thirteen-year veteran of the Endeavor Companies, where she served as an Executive Vice President of Content and head of Documentaries at Endeavor Content. Prior to joining Endeavor in 2008, Copland acted as the Head of Red Envelope Entertainment, the former original content division of Netflix, where she oversaw the acquisition, marketing and distribution of close to 100 films a year during their three years in existence. Across her entire career, Liesl has built in a double bottom line approach to her practice and has a deep focus on social justice reform and impact focused content.