From Donald Glover to House of David: Kara Smith Is Amazon MGM's New Head of Drama
- Samuel Ogbegun
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Kara Smith, the executive behind Donald Glover's Mr. and Mrs. Smith, was promoted July 8 and landed her first big win two days later, with the House of David Season 3 renewal.
By Kiven Marie
Donald Glover's Mr. and Mrs. Smith put Black creative leadership at the center of one of Prime Video's biggest recent hits and the executive behind it just got a major promotion. Amazon MGM Studios named Kara Smith Head of Drama on July 8, elevating a veteran of more than seven years at the studio to oversee its entire drama slate, reporting directly to television chief Peter Friedlander. Two days later, she was publicly celebrating one of her division's first wins in the new role: the Season 3 renewal of House of David, which we covered here.
Who is Kara Smith?
Smith isn't new to Amazon's biggest shows. Per Friedlander's internal memo, she's been "instrumental" across The Summer I Turned Pretty, Reacher, and, notably, Mr. and Mrs. Smith -the Donald Glover-co-created spy drama that made Glover both star and creator, and stands as one of the clearest examples of Black creative leadership driving a major Prime Video hit.
Her upcoming slate includes Blade Runner 2099 and The Challenger, a limited series starring Kristen Stewart as astronaut Sally Ride, built around NASA's history-making, first-ever diversified astronaut class of 1978.
The promotion is part of a broader restructuring at Amazon MGM: three senior programming executives: Jen Chambers, Michael McDonald, and Odetta Watkins, are exiting as the studio moves to a flatter, genre-based leadership model, with Smith now running Drama alongside newly appointed heads of Worldbuilding, Nonfiction, and Animation.
A new studio head's first major public moment tends to say something about what's coming next, and Smith's track record — a Donald Glover series, an astronaut drama built around a barrier-breaking class of pioneers, and now a faith-based epic renewed for a third season — points toward a drama slate with real range. We'll be tracking what she greenlights from here.
Read our full coverage of the House of David Season 3 renewal here.
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