MANELLE DRIDI

SUMMARY

An Emmy-nominated Showrunner, Production Lead, and Creative Producer with 7+ years of experience producing premium documentaries, live shows, editorial content, and digital series from pitch to post. Known for building production infrastructure, managing complex cross-functional workflows, and balancing big-picture storytelling with meticulous execution.

WORK EXPERIENCE

SHOWRUNNER
New Music Friday Features, Spotify & MGX, 2025 - Present

Helped launch and develop Spotify’s flagship weekly music-news series, building and continuously refining the show’s production infrastructure and workflows from development through delivery.
- Lead day-to-day production operations across studio and post-production, coordinating schedules, logistics, vendors, equipment, and cross-functional communication.
- Oversee end-to-end production workflows, ensuring efficient execution, timely delivery, and alignment across production, post, and Spotify stakeholder teams.
- Lead teams through fast-paced productions and shifting priorities by developing streamlined systems and contingency plans to maintain seamless operations.

ARCHIVAL PRODUCER
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, National Geographic, 2023-2025

Managed extensive archival strategy, the archival budget, and vendor relations for 5-part historical docuseries. Earned an Emmy Nomination from research and archival producing for this series.

STORY PRODUCER
Hells Angels: Kingdom Come, VICE TV, 2025

Field and story producer for two episodes of a six-part docuseries on the Hells Angels
– Conducted in-depth research, outreach, and pre-interviews with sensitive and hard-to-reach documentary participants.
– Acted as a liaison between field and post teams to maintain continuity, accuracy, and editorial clarity across both episodes.
– Collaborated closely with editors and post team to build string outs, shape narrative arcs, and ensure delivery milestones were met.

CO-PRODUCER
Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion, HBO, 2022-2023

Led international pre-production and field producing for a high-profile fashion and. environmental justice documentary.
- Built relationships and conducted interviews with key on-camera contributors
- Coordinated multi-country shoots (U.S., Italy, Ghana) and served as field producer in all locations.
- Managed archival content strategy and supported story & edit team in post.

CO-PRODUCER
Face to Face with Scott Peterson, Peacock, 2024

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Spector, Showtime, 2021

- Conducted extensive research, initial outreach, pre-interviews.
– Maintained interviewee relationships, managed releases, was on-set producer for shoots. Coordinated including location scouting and on-site production support.
– Provided cue sheet creation, archival manager and post-production support
- Story produced using across all four episodes.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Here For It With Avani Gregg, Facebook Watch Digital Series, 2020

- Conducted casting for show guests. Assisted in shaping episode narratives and scripting for weekly digital and live segments featuring TikTok star Avani Gregg.
– Managed on-set talent needs, ensuring Avani and participants felt supported, prepared, and comfortable before and during filming.

SKILLS

Creative Producing | Studio Operations | Cross-Functional Team Leadership | Budget Management | Production Logistics | Vendor Coordination | Workflow Optimization | Production & Project Management | Field Producing | Story Producing | Film & TV Production | Problem Solving | Operations Strategy | Team Leadership & Crew Management

SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE

Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro, AVID
Microsoft Excel
Canva
ArchiveOx
Slack
Frame.io
LucidLink

EDUCATION

Johns Hopkins University (2017) - M.S. Engineering Management

Johns Hopkins University (2016) - B.S. Environmental Engineering

George Washington University (2019) - Documentary Filmmaking Certificate

Prague Film School (2018) - Filmmaking Certificate

LANGUAGES

Fluent in English & Arabic

Proficient in French

Intermediate in Spanish