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By the time Pearlena Igbokwe was offered the job of president of Universal Television in 2016, she already had an impressive résumé. She’d climbed the ranks over 20 years at Showtime, and then excelled during a four-year
stretch as head of NBC’s drama department. But the prospect of moving out of the network hierarchy to lead one of the industry’s biggest television studios was daunting. It meant shifting from buying TV shows for NBC to selling shows to networks and streamers.
Igbokwe didn’t feel ready for the demands of running a large division with dozens of shows in production at any given time. But NBC Entertainment’s leaders, Bob Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke, assured her she was.
“We were doing so well [at NBC], and then all of a sudden they’re like, ‘You’re going to the studio.’ And I said, ‘I’m just getting the hang of this network thing — you want to put me into something that I have to learn a different side of the business?’ And they literally said to me, ‘We know you can do it.’ Which just gave me such a boost, because I was questioning myself. But they didn’t.”
Igbokwe would, of course, rise to the challenge. Today, she serves as NBCUniversal’s chairman of Television Studios, NBC Entertainment and Peacock Scripted originals. She oversees a wide swath of scripted programming across NBC and Peacock, and she’s NBCU’s top executive overseeing TV production through three distinct labels: Universal Television, Universal Global Television and Universal Television Alternative Studio. Igbokwe’s stature within NBCU has grown following the company’s separation in January from the linear cable channels that created Versant Media. And it’s likely to rise more as NBCU prepares to become a standalone company after its planned spinoff from parent company Comcast in mid-2027.
Donna Langley, a 2014 Power of Women honoree, hails the Nigerian-born, New Jersey-raised executive as “an important force at NBCUniversal” and in the wider industry. “Pearlena has always demonstrated a rare ability to combine commercial judgment and exceptional creative instincts with the foresight to see around corners,” Langley says. “She’s exceptional at bringing out the best in people — building strong teams, creating clarity around a shared vision and empowering those around her to do their best work. That combination of judgment, vision and leadership is rare.”
Igbokwe’s initial caution about taking on the top TV studio job was not without merit. Her elevation to president of Universal Television proved to be a challenge. From a few early missteps, she discovered the importance of investing her time in being an effective manager of people. “What I’ve learned is that being the boss is different from being a leader. The boss is the person who just tells you what to do. Being a leader is the person who has to inspire other people to do their best work,” Igbokwe says.
Greenblatt, who worked with Igbokwe at Showtime from 2003-2010, was the one who recruited her to NBC in 2012. He saw that Igbokwe wasn’t just a good executive; she established trust with the showrunners and producers on signature Showtime series such as “Dexter,” “Nurse Jackie” and “Soul Food.” “Over the years I have seen her grow to the point where she mastered the skills of talent relations,” Greenblatt says.
Igbokwe has maintained her relationship-centric approach to her work, even as her roster as a studio chief has expanded to include such notables as Dick Wolf, Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels and Amy Poehler.
“All the people at that studio see her as a partner. She has helped grow their businesses,” Greenblatt says.
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In hindsight, Igbokwe feels fortunate to have had her formative experience as a programming executive at Showtime, where she had the luxury of focusing on only a handful of shows. She was able to devote the time she needed to become familiar with every part of each program. “I felt the same level of responsibility for the shows as the producers did,” Igbokwe says, “and I just felt like we all had this shared collective success. I was in the ‘Dexter’ writers’ room with them, and they saw me as careful a steward of the show as they were.”
And some things don’t change. Igbokwe is now one of NBCUniversal’s most senior leaders, but she still gets into the nitty-gritty on projects where she knows she can make a difference. Will Packer, a prolific producer of movies and TV shows, says she was “indispensable” to the production of “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” his 2024 limited series for Peacock starring Kevin Hart. “She never hesitates to get in the trenches with her creative partners, a skill she’s honed over a career few can rival, and one that’s woefully lacking in many executives,” Packer says. He also praises Igbokwe as a leader, citing her “ability to push those around her to deliver at the highest level they’re capable of while still feeling like a true partner and collaborator.”
In 1971, when Igbokwe was 6, her family fled their homeland as refugees amid the civil war that ensued in the chaotic years after Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain. The life-changing migration to the United States ended with the family settling in Montclair, New Jersey, where television became young Igbokwe’s best friend. It helped her navigate her new world.
The oldest of three children, Igbokwe was a good student. With assistance from the nonprofit A Better Chance, she attended an all-girls prep school in New Jersey that put her on the path to undergrad at Yale University and then an MBA from Columbia University.
During her time in New Haven, she spent two summers working in the NBC Summer Associates program, where she was exposed to the inner workings of the network as a research associate. The experience opened her eyes to the potential for a career in entertainment.
“I think so much about my life’s journey and especially my professional journey. It’s certainly not an impossible journey, but it’s improbable. The older I get, the less I think that things are improbable, because I come from such an improbable place — a child in the middle of a civil war in Nigeria,” she says. “And then my family was one of the few that got to come here.”
The weight of that opportunity has stayed with her. “So many people died in that civil war in Nigeria. So many people could not leave,” she says. “Sometimes when I look back at it all, I say, ‘What are the chances? What are the odds?’”
Coming back to NBC more than 25 years after her days running around 30 Rock in Summer Associates program was extremely gratifying for Igbokwe, who is a natural overachiever.
“The thing I always remember is that whatever I do, it’s in service to a company that needs to also do something else — make money. I wasn’t making TV shows as home movies; it’s in the context of a business,” she says. “I love the mix of the strategic and the financial and the creative aspects of this job. I love it because they feed off of each other. If you do something great creatively that’s really successful, it helps the balance sheet. But you have to manage the balance sheet in a way that allows you to do more of those things and to make those decisions. You don’t get to be a senior leader without always understanding the business implications of what you’re doing.”
Igbokwe is statuesque and vivacious. She has a distinctive laugh that echoes and a brightness to her smile that commands attention. She can be fierce and warm all at once. In 2012,
as Igbokwe settled into a more high-profile perch as the leader of drama development for NBC, it was an adjustment for some people in NBC’s orbit.
“One guy in particular took me to lunch and said, ‘How’d you get this job?’ He had no qualms asking me that,” Igbokwe says, shaking her head.
As an immigrant, Igbokwe got his message loud and clear. “There’s always that sense that you’re a bit of an outsider,” she says. “I’ve always been underestimated by a lot of people. But not by the right people who mattered, the people who entrusted me with opportunities. You can have 10 people doubting you — ‘Is she the right person for that job? — but all you need is one or two to say, ‘You’re the right person for that job.’ That has really been the trajectory of my career.”
Charity Spotlight: A Better Chance
Pearlena Igbokwe’s connection to A Better Chance could not be more personal. The New York-based nonprofit helps high-potential students of color secure admission to top public and private high schools, so they can go to college and become leaders across the public and private sectors. A Better Chance was founded in 1963 by a group of New England educators in the heady moment when New Frontier idealism met Civil Rights Movement activism. Nearly 15 years later, Igbokwe became one of the hundreds of students helped each year by ABC. Then a teenager growing up in Montclair, New Jersey, Igbokwe received support from ABC to attend Kent Place, a renowned all-girls school with a rigorous college-prep program.
It was life-changing, Igbokwe says. “It opened a door to a world that I didn’t know existed,” she recalls. “In the beginning, I felt somewhat out of place. But a large part of what the program did was teach us that we belonged there.”
Indeed. Igbokwe’s impressive rise in Hollywood makes her a powerful example of what ABC hopes to achieve, student by student. Now led by president and CEO Francisco Tezén, ABC works with 200 partner schools to arrange financial aid for about 350 students every year. In 2000, Oprah Winfrey threw a spotlight on ABC by giving it a $10 million charitable donation.
To date, ABC counts about 20,000 prominent people in its alumni network, including former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and cultural commentator Roxane Gay.
