Audible Inks Multi-Project Development Deal with Elizabeth Banks

Audible today announced a multi-project development and first look deal with multi-award winning director, writer, and actress, Elizabeth Banks. Kicking off the collaboration are two exclusive originals: unscripted My Body, My Podcast and Fugly, a scripted ensemble comedy.

Inspired by Banks’ personal experiences, My Body, My Podcast is a long-form, conversational podcast about the female experience, including sexuality, motherhood and more. Hosted by Banks and launching on July 29, the podcast’s mix of personal candor and professional expertise will create a safe and open space to talk about all things sex and body and destigmatize these topics for young people and women. Episodes will feature a variety of experts, activists, and creators including Laverne Cox, Jameela Jamil, Maggie Brown & Helen Yenser, Ann Mitchell (Elizabeth’s mother), Melissa Pintor Carnagey, and more (full list below). Banks’ distinctive style – smart, funny, and open – engages her guests in thoughtful and informative conversations on intimate and often taboo topics, helping to make the subject matter more approachable for listeners. A preview of My Body, My Podcast can be heard here.

Multi-cast scripted comedy series Fugly, created by Jenny Rachel Weiner, will center on a 20-something researcher for a tech company who goes undercover at a high school to find out what makes today’s teens tick, and finds herself at the center of a gender war.

"Audio provides so many storytelling avenues. I’ve been loving the creative process and have had so much fun creating wildly different podcasts – from boundary pushing organic conversations, to a scripted ensemble comedy," shared Elizabeth Banks. "I’m thrilled to be in business with Audible, a collaborator that has been enormously supportive and fun to work with."

"On screen, behind the camera, and with a mic, Elizabeth Banks is a storyteller who offers a truly fresh, smart, and authentic point of view," said Rachel Ghiazza, Executive Vice President, Head of US Content at Audible. "She’s such an amazing balance of humor and heart. We are absolutely thrilled to kick off our collaboration together with My Body, My Podcast and Fugly -- two very different but equally entertaining series."

This deal follows Audible’s recently announced production and development deals with top industry creatives such as Treefort Media, Topic Studios, Team Coco, Steph Curry’s Unanimous Media, Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions, Charlamagne tha God’s GTHA World Productions, and The SpringHill Company, founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. Projects produced via this new deal will join a series of best-in-class Audible Originals including recent releases like The Pursuit of Healthiness with Blake Griffin, the #1 New York Times best-selling audio fiction The Sandman from Neil Gaiman, performed by James McAvoy, Kat Dennings and Michael Sheen, Letters from Camp, produced and performed by Jamie Lee Curtis, among many more.

My Body, My Podcast Guests include:

• Maggie Brown & Helen Yenser, Academy Award winning producers for Best Documentary Short (2019) for the film Period. End of Sentence.
• Melissa Pintor Carnagey, founder of Sex Positive Families
• Laverne Cox, activist and actress
• Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent
• Joshua Harris, author who helped popularize purity culture and now disavows it
• Shine Louise Houston, filmmaker and the founding director and producer of Pink and White Productions
• Jameela Jamil, host of the I Weigh podcast and actress
• Ann Mitchell, Elizabeth’s mother
• Liza Winston Nteta, mid-wife who, among other things, births babies for prison populations
• Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls and Sex & Boys and Sex
• Pidgeon Pagonis, activist for intersex people
• Amy Schalet, sex educator and author
• Dr. Jenni Skyler & Daniel Lebowitz, married sex therapist team and owners of the Intimacy Institute
• Chelsea VonChaz, founder of Happy Period
• Nadia Bolz-Weber, feminist Lutheran pastor and author of SHAMELESS: A Case for Not Feeling Bad about Feeling Good (About Sex)
• Lindy West, activist and author of Shrill

ABOUT ELIZABETH BANKS: Actress, producer, writer and director Elizabeth Banks recently wrapped production on the feature drama Call Jane, opposite Sigourney Weaver. She will next begin production on Universal Pictures’ Cocaine Bear, which she is directing and producing. Her work includes stand-out performances in projects including The Hunger Games franchise, Love & Mercy, The LEGO Movie and Mrs. America. She is also a three-time Emmy nominee for her recurring roles in 30 Rock and Modern Family. On the production side, Banks made her directorial debut in 2015 with Pitch Perfect 2 and produced the Pitch Perfect franchise through her production company Brownstone Productions, alongside her husband Max Handelman. Brownstone Productions' slate includes multiple film, television and digital collaborations across various networks and studios, including the critically-acclaimed comedy Shrill on Hulu, starring SNL's Aidy Bryant. Banks can currently be seen hosting season three of the hit ABC reboot of Press Your Luck.