Snap Taps OWN’s Jill Dickerson to Lead Unscripted Programming

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Jill Dickerson has left OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network after more than a decade to join Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, as a senior member of the Originals team.

A seasoned reality TV exec, Dickerson will help lead the development of Snap’s docu-series and unscripted programming and is based at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters. She reports to Vanessa Guthrie, director of Snap Originals.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jill as a member of the Snap Originals team,” Guthrie said in announcing her hire. “Jill is a seasoned executive in reality television with a strong creative sensibility. We’re excited for Jill to bring her expertise to unscripted Snap Originals, as we’re set to deliver even more compelling, made for mobile programming in 2020.”

Most recently, Dickerson served as senior VP, programming and development at OWN, a joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery. She had been with the cable network since 2009, where she helped launch and oversee a slate of shows at the network including “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” “For Peete’s Sake,” “Our America with Lisa Ling,” “Deion’s Family Playbook,” “Flex & Shanice” and “The Book of John Gray.”

Prior to joining OWN, she was consulting producer and head writer for the Sydney, Hollywood and Brooklyn seasons of MTV’s “The Real World,” where she was responsible for developing all storylines and overseeing structure and editing of the groundbreaking show. Before that, Dickerson served as series producer for TLC’s “Miami Ink,” supervising producer for VH1 series “My Fair Brady,” supervising story producer for the premiere seasons of ABC series “The Bachelorette,” “The Mole,” and “Making the Band,” and senior story editor for CBS’ “Big Brother.” She got her start as a story editor on MTV’s “The Real World: Hawaii.”

Dickerson is a current member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves as an executive committee member on the organization’s Reality Peer Group. She is a former board member of the Emma Bowen Foundation, which provides opportunities for minority youth to be mentored by media professionals.

Dickerson holds a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and an MFA in culture and media from New York University.