Widely respected TV publicity vet Rebecca Marks was honored on Wednesday with the Ben Halpern Lifetime Achievement Award, recognized for her ongoing career as one of the most trusted communications execs in the biz. Marks, who’s now the exec VP of publicity, communications and social media at Warner Bros. Television Group, previously held a lengthy tenure at NBC.
In awarding Marks the prize, TPEC noted that she “has hired, trained and served as a mentor to many of the top PR professionals currently working in the public relations industry.” Her credits include overseeing publicity efforts on series like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Voice,” “Friends,” “The Tonight Show,” “Abbott Elementary,” “The West Wing,” “Young Sheldon” and “Ted Lasso.”
The Ben Halpern Lifetime Achievement Award is named after one of the founders of TPEC (the Television Publicity Executives Committee), which also handed out its second annual TPEC Awards on Thursday — recognizing some of the most successful television publicity campaigns of the year. Winners included teams from 20th Television, Amazon MGM Studios, CBS Studios, Hulu, Lifetime, NBC, Paramount+ and Peacock.
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Also, for the first time, TPEC handed out a “Rising Star Award” for individuals “whose exemplary contributions to their PR team cements their future in the field”: Brandon Bassler (Lifetime), Tori Morris (Hallmark) and Jillian Santoro (Smithhouse Strategy).
“For our second year, we saw an impressive selection of campaigns from our colleagues at studios, networks and viewing platforms,” said TPEC chair Wendy Zocks (who’s the founder of Wendy Zocks PR). Zocks. “These campaigns showcased creative and strategic thinking supporting an impressive range of content in an evolving landscape of networks and services. TPEC continues to evolve and this year we are thrilled to shine a light on our rising stars as well as honor one of our industry’s most respected executives, Rebecca Marks.”
Here are the 2024 TPEC Awards:
Campaign of the Year: “The Traitors” (Peacock)
Returning Drama: “Star Trek: Picard,” Season 3 (Cornelia Thomson CBS Studios; Jennifer Verti, CBS Studios; Rachael Wesolowski, CBS Studios; Nikki Kozel, Paramount+; Mackenzie Lawn, Paramount+; Taylor Webster, Paramount+)
New Drama: “Goosebumps” (Steven Beydler, Disney Branded Television; Morgan Di Stefano, Disney Branded Television; Katherine Nelson, Disney Branded Television; Kristina Quintos, Disney Branded Television; Chrissy Woo, Disney Branded Television; Lauren Grossman, Sony Pictures Television; Annalisa Race, Sony Pictures Television)
Returning Comedy: “only Murders in the Building,” Season 3 (Yasamin Azarakhsh, Hulu; Emily Leitz, Hulu; Lydia McMahon, Hulu; Suzy Ejuryan, 20th Television; Chris Kaspers, 20th Television)
New Comedy: “Frasier” (Kacy Barrasas, CBS Studios; Beth Haiken, CBS Studios; Langley Turcsanyi, CBS Studios; Eve Kenny, Paramount+; Magee Snyder, Paramount+; Yahnnica Tate, Paramount+)
Returning Unscripted: “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Season 15 (Michael Fabiani, MTV Entertainment Studios; Mariana Garces, MTV Entertainment Studios; Justin Permenter, MTV Entertainment Studios; Patrick Santiago, MTV Entertainment Studios; Cameron Knoblock, Metro Public Relations; Robin Leventhal, Metro Public Relations; Sammy Jerrard, Metro Public Relations)
New Unscripted: “The Traitors” (Alex Martinett, Peacock; Stephanie Baum, Peacock; Breanna Klein, Peacock; Cassidy Irish, Peacock; David Lee, Peacock)
Animated Series: “Krapopolis” (David Hail, Fox Entertainment)
Children’s Series: “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (Morgan Di Stefano, Disney Branded Television; Cara Freitas, Disney Branded Television; Heather Levine, Disney Branded Television; Katherine Nelson, Disney Branded Television; Adam Stern, Disney Branded Television; Chrissy Woo, Disney Branded Television; Sepehr Amirkhalili, 20th Television; Chris Kaspers, 20th Television; Erin Riley, 20th Television; Shari Rosenblum, 20th Television)
TV Movie: “Black Girl Missing” (Tracy Speed, Lifetime)
Limited or Anthology Series: “Daisy Jones & The Six” (Melissa Armstrong, Amazon MGM Studios; Kit Chavers, Amazon MGM Studios; Kevin McAlpine, Amazon MGM Studios; Reegan Smyth, Amazon MGM Studios)
Talk Show: “The Daily Show” (Ronnie Brumant, Comedy Central; Parker Moreno, Comedy Central; Nicole Platt, Comedy Central; Imani Punch, Comedy Central; Natalie Lee, Minassian Media; Craig Minassian, Minassian Media)
Game Show: “007: Road to a Million” (Nikki Calderon, Amazon MGM Studios; Christina Lee, Amazon MGM Studios; Sophie Spirit, Amazon MGM Studios; Tyler Zlotnick, Amazon MGM Studios)
TPEC Award committee members included Ryan Aguirre (freelance), Gabriella Alaimo (Sony Pictures Television), Brian Eley (Crunchyroll), Kristen J. Hall (CBS Studios), Ryan McCormick (NBCUniversal), Lindsay Miller (Amazon MGM Studios), Amy Prenner (The Prenner Group), Shari Rosenblum (Disney Television Studios), Aashna Moitra Serrao (DreamWorks Animation), Dustin Smith (Smithhouse), Lakeitcha Thomas (Disney Television Studios), Lynn Weiss (Smithhouse) and Zocks.
