Blanchard House continues to buck trend of cutbacks in the audio industry, hiring ex-HBO and Economist staff

Independent, female-led podcast production company and IP pipeline, Blanchard House, today announced that they have hired two new members of staff. Hassan Chaudhry joins the team as Head of Partnerships & Strategy direct from his role as Director of HBO Max Podcasting Strategy. Amica Sciortino Nowlan will join as Managing Producer, previously at The Economist.

This represents an exciting time of growth for Blanchard House, who will be releasing five shows this year with major distribution partners, including a two series launch with Audible, marking them out as a new force, and ‘one to watch’.

Chaudhry is based in New York and brings seven years of experience in media and entertainment at HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery. He established and led the award-winning HBO Max Podcasting group which produced and distributed shows including The Official Game of Thrones Podcast, HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast, and Batman: The Audio Adventures. He previously held roles at the network focused on content strategy, film programming, new business development, and direct-to-consumer streaming. He’s excited for a new challenge at Blanchard House, where he will lead the growth and management of the company’s film and TV relationships.

Sciortino Nowlan is an award-winning audio producer. Previously at The Economist, she helped build their audio features team where she was most recently editor of Checks and Balance, covering American politics, history and society. Her feature Trapped in Iran was shortlisted for podcast of the year by the Foreign Press Association, and as lead producer of Money Talks, The Economist’s flagship business and finance series, she twice won gold at the British Podcast Awards. Amica also led a project with The Economist Education Foundation to help children around the world to tell their stories through audio.

Rosie Pye, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Blanchard House commented, “We’re so delighted to add Hassan and Amica to our growing team. We’ve got an extremely busy year ahead, so to have new team members of this caliber is exceptional. We look forward this year to finally releasing some phenomenal shows with our brilliant partners.”