Disney Co-Chair Dana Walden to Be Honored with 2025 International Emmy Founders Award

• Co-Chair, The Walt Disney Company Television Dana Walden will receive the 2025 International Emmy Founders Award
• It was revealed Monday by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
• The prize will be presented at the 53rd International Emmy Awards

Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden will be the recipient of the 2025 International Emmy Founders Award, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced today. She will be presented with the award at the 53rd International Emmy Awards ceremony on November 24, 2025, in New York.

The Academy chose Dana for her "groundbreaking influence on the media and entertainment business" and international scope of the series she has championed. International Academy President and CEO Bruce L. Paisner hailed her as a leader driving many of television's best-known, award-winning shows, citing her trailblazing leadership both as CEO of Fox Television Group and currently as Co-Chair of Disney Entertainment.

Unanimously considered a strong candidate to replace Bob Iger as Disney CEO, Dana has received numerous recent recognitions, such as the Milestone Award at the 2025 Producers Guild Awards, induction into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, and selection as MIPCOM Personality of the Year. She has also been included in CNBC's 2024 Changemakers list, awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business, and received several other industry awards.

Thanking her, Walden referred to the award as "an extraordinary privilege," crediting the honor to the "passion and dedication" of the gifted creators and executives she has worked with. Under her leadership, she coordinates Disney's international entertainment media, news, and content groups, co-leading Disney+ and Hulu, with Disney+ now reaching more than 150 countries and in 40 languages.

Under her management, The Walt Disney Company received 60 Primetime Emmy Awards in the previous year — more in one year than any company. Dana joined Disney through the company's acquisition of 20th Century Fox and has overseen the development and production of such blockbuster series as 24, Abbott Elementary, The Americans, American Horror Story, American Idol, The Bear, Dancing with the Stars, Family Guy, Glee, Grey's Anatomy, Homeland, The Kardashians, Modern Family, Only Murders in the Building, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Shōgun, The Simpsons, and This Is Us.

She thereby joins an elite club of past Founders Award recipients, including Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams, Jesse Armstrong, Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, and David E. Kelley. Variety and a number of international media partners are sponsoring the event.