Romina Rosado is arguably among the most influential executives in Spanish-language television today, in charge of organizing NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo’s programming content across linear, social and streaming platforms.
“Romina is a seasoned executive that deeply understands the Latino audience and their evolving media consumption habits,” said NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises president of entertainment and content strategy Ronald Day. “Her expertise in the omnichannel media space makes her the perfect leader to oversee our content strategy across all platforms.”
One would assume that an executive with such an impressive pedigree would have spent many years in entertainment, but Rosado’s industry journey only began a little over a decade ago.
Growing up in Northern Germany — her parents are from Spain — she had no Hollywood aspirations. “I didn’t even know that was a career option for me,” she said.
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Recognizing the value of learning English (Rosado is fluent in four languages), her parents had sent her to the United States every summer. At 16, she stayed with a family in Los Angeles, a city she would call home two decades later. Her career began in London, though, as a public relations executive in 2000.
She set her sights on moving to the U.S. in 2001. “I was supposed to move to New York on the day 9/11 happened,” Rosado said. “After that horrible event, I didn’t actually move until March 2002.”
Insert Throughout my career, what I like to do is I like to figure things out. I like taking on complex solutions and then putting them together.”
Romina Rosado
Seven years later, Rosado got her first taste of show business. In 2009, she said, a former colleague persuaded her to take a job at Wenner Media’s US Weekly, running the entertainment publication’s digital business.
“I had no idea about entertainment,” Rosado said. “I didn’t know who Kim Kardashian was.”
The digital platform was still in its infancy, but Rosado said she took on the challenge and grew along with it. “The market started changing really quickly, and I’m actually proud of what I was able to do there,” she said.
Her success and perserverance caught the attention of NBCUniversal, which lured her to Los Angeles in 2012 to be VP of E! Online. Three years later, Rosado would ascend to senior VP of global content, overseeing all E! news and branded content creation across all platforms.
In 2018, then-Telemundo chairman Cesar Conde approached Rosado to head up digital news for the Spanish-language network. “Then last year [Telemundo] basically said, ‘Content is content, so we want to move you and your entire team into programming,’ ” she said. “That’s the role that I do now: Thinking about content regardless of what platform it ends up on.”
Added Day: “She lives and breathes our content and makes sure her team keeps our audiences’ needs and preferences at the forefront of our programming efforts.”
Up for a Challenge
Throughout her career, Rosado said, she’s always believed in her abilities and never shied away from challenges. Going forward, she looks forward to further challenging herself within the entertainment world.
“In the short- to medium-term, I’m very excited about the opportunities in streaming, obviously with Peacock and other streaming services,” she said. “Throughout my career, what I like to do is I like to figure things out. I like taking on complex solutions and then putting them together. The media industry as a whole right now is in a pivotal and interesting time, for good and bad, and that motivates me every day to figure it out.”
Rosado is also passionate about mentoring the next generation of female executives. Young women today should explore as many career opportunities as they can, she said, including those they may not have thought about previously.
“Always stay very open to any possibility,” Rosado said. “I see a lot of people make the mistake of getting hung up on what it is they think they want to do. I think it’s super-important to be curious about the world.”
