Fox Rothschild congratulates Darrell D. Miller, Marc H. Simon, Cynthia L. Katz and Heidy Vaquerano, who were selected to Variety’s Dealmakers of 2024 list.

As the entertainment industry has been hit with unprecedented labor strikes and the deflation of the streaming bubble, those highlighted on this list continued through it all to close deals for clients in innovative ways.

Darrell D. Miller
Founding Chair of the Entertainment & Sports Law Department, Miller  repped husband and wife duo Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance in a first-look deal for the couple’s production company with 20th Television. He also negotiated Bassett’s return for “Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and for Vance to take over the role of Zeus in Season 2 of the Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” Miller also negotiated deals for Chris “Ludacris” Bridges’ 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show, Emmy-nominated Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s starring roles in A24 rom-com “Eternity” and Michel Gondry’s Universal musical “Golden” and comedian/host Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special “Have It All.”

On the future of the industry, Miller said, “I see a paradigm shift breaking up the monopolies, creating more ways to make money and an opportunity for those nimble enough to find a new model and create their niche and build their audience.”

Marc H. Simon
Chair of the Entertainment & Sports Law Department, Simon was lauded as “a force in the nonfiction space.” This year, he closed high-profile deals for Oscar-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for her Diane Von Furstenberg Hulu documentary “Woman in Charge;” Alex Stapleton’s House of Nonfiction Productions for a Netflix docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs, produced with 50 Cent; longtime AMC Network executive Josh Sapan on an overall deal with IFC Films; and the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions and Bloomberg Media.

Simon spoke with Variety about the importance of fostering new talent. “I would like to see the emergence of a strong, consolidated and commercially viable SVOD platform for the smart and bold independent voices of our time and those to come.”

Cynthia L. Katz and Heidy Vaquerano
Katz and Vaquerano have closed more than a billion dollars-worth of deals for HarbourView Equity Partners since the company began in 2021. This year, the team handled a $500 million debt financing for HarbourView – backed by its music royalties catalog – that was listed among the music industry’s biggest deals of the year by Billboard Magazine. The deal included titles from artists such as Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Wiz Khalifa, Brad Paisley and James Fauntleroy. The duo also represented Merch Collective in its $25 million-plus majority interest sale to Sony Music Entertainment.

On global deals, Katz told Variety about the growing interest in rights originating outside the United States, saying “We need to be sure we are helping our clients to appropriately analyze the risk vs. reward tradeoff from exploring unfamiliar jurisdictions.”