courtesy of words + pictures
Words + Pictures
Connor Schell (founder and CEO)
Libby Geist (executive vice president, head of documentaries)
Aaron Cohen (executive vice president, head of development)
Connor Schell introduced viewers to a new form of sports storytelling when he co-created the “30 for 30” series while he was at ESPN. Eventually that spawned such titles as the Oscar-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America,” and made ESPN the leader in big, ambitious sports stories in which, as he put it, “the sports world gives you real insight into broader culture.”
In leaving ESPN and founding Words + Pictures alongside Chernin Entertainment in 2021, Schell sought to continue that mission. His first hires included executive vice presidents Libby Geist and Aaron Cohen, both of whom also had extensive experience working on ESPN projects.
“The media landscape evolves and changes and new buyers and new platforms enter the market and gain greater and greater share and cultural significance that the same premise that sports storytelling can still cut through and reach people and say something about our culture,” Schell said.
“Super League: The War for Football” did just that. The four-part series, which released on Apple TV+ in January and was among Words + Pictures’ first projects, delved into the high-stakes battle that arose in April 2021 when plans for a breakaway league emerged among Europe’s most popular soccer teams before the effort ultimately failed.
“Libby and I looked at that story when it broke and thought a lot about the notion and the ongoing question of who owns sports?” Schell said. “We just thought that was a really interesting place to explore, like, how did this happen? How did it come together? What did it mean? And what does it say about the business of sport globally?”
Those are the types of big, overarching questions Schell and his Words + Pictures team like to take on as they select projects. Other works of theirs include Netflix’s “The Kind of Collectibles,” Hulu’s “Algiers, America,” and ongoing work for ESPN, including continued involvement on the “30 for 30” series and production of the ESPY Awards.
“We’re making sure we’re not just telling what happened, but providing insight and context into why it happened, and what does it mean?” Schell said. “We’re so lucky in that the sports world gives you those stories literally almost every single day. So we try to be really selective and keep a really high bar as to what we think is interesting.” — Erik Bacharach
