Can impact entertain?

What role can and does philanthropy play in shaping the stories we tell? Who gets to decide which stories matter? Can content be genuinely transformative and still turn a profit or does the market inevitably swallow the message?

From blockbuster documentaries to prime-time drama, philanthropic funding can what gets made, who gets heard, and how social change is imagined on screen and on stage. This public lecture examines the evolving relationship between philanthropic funding and the narratives that are portrayed about our society in mainstream entertainment.

Drawing on examples from the panelists' experience leading campaigns like MTV Shuga and Girl Effect the discussion will explore where the two have aligned and where there are tensions.

Keynote speaker Alisha Fernandez Miranda, Chair of I.G. Advisors, will be joined by Marya Bangee, Senior Advisor for Pop Culture Collaborative and Pillars Fund, and Georgia Arnold, Founder & CEO of GA-Agency, in a conversation chaired by Professor Jonathan Roberts.

Meet our speakers

Alisha Fernandez Miranda is the award-winning Cuban-American author of the USA Today bestselling novel Someone’s Gotta Give. Her first book, the memoir My What If Year, featured on Good Morning America, and was a best new book in People Magazine and the Boston Globe. Her writing has been published in Vogue, Marie Claire, Shondaland, and numerous other publications.

Alisha is the current chair at I.G. Advisors, a leading social impact agency that consults the world’s biggest non-profits, including the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation and UN Women. Alisha is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University, and speaks on women’s empowerment, social impact and sustainability.

She currently lives in Scotland with her husband and children.

Georgia Arnold has pioneered the use of mass media for purposeful social norms, behaviour-change and demand-creation content. Her focus was on HIV and SRHR issues affecting young people worldwide, with a USP of working with the MTV brand. This included founding and running the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, executive producing the “MTV Staying Alive” documentaries, the award-winning “Meeting Mandela” documentary, and conceiving and creating the multi-award-winning campaign “MTV Shuga”, across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and India (“MTV Nishedh”). Concurrently, as SVP Social Responsibility and Head of Paramount's Social Impact Studio, Georgia was responsible for developing social initiatives for Paramount’s portfolio of brands internationally. She launched and ran the Social Impact Studio for Paramount+, creating content with purpose and impact.

In 2023, Georgia was recognised by UNAIDS for her 25 years of leadership working in HIV prevention. She is a Fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Apolitical Foundation, and a Board Member of the Inua Dada Foundation, Next Narrative Africa Fund, sits on the Global Advisory Council for Impact Global Health, and is an Academy Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Georgia was named in Cablefax’s list of “Most Powerful Women in the Media 2022”.

Today, Georgia is Founder & CEO of GA-Agency, harnessing the power of storytelling with mission-driven organisation

Marya Bangee is a Senior Advisor for Pop Culture Collaborative and Pillars Fund, looking at their culture investment strategies. Previously, Marya was Vice President of RISE at the Walt Disney Studios. In this role, she worked as a creative thought partner with the studios under the Disney umbrella, including Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, 20th Century, and Searchlight, on telling culturally representative stories seen by billions of people globally. Her team was responsible for furthering representation across the Studios through content advisement; market strategies; creative talent programs; and Launchpad, which is an incubator for diverse emerging filmmakers.

Marya was the Executive Director of Harness, an organization that used cultural strategy to center the stories of underrepresented communities in Hollywood. Through her work at Harness, Marya worked with hundreds of artists to use their platforms for social justice. She also founded and ran her own company, SILA Consulting, which is a social impact agency that advises on film and television projects. Marya Bangee is passionate about helping build communities. She started her journey as a community organizer in the Muslim American community, including leading a national advocacy campaign for the protection of free speech on college campuses. Through her organizing, she has often represented the Muslim American voice in national media like the New York Times and NPR. Community organizing is the foundation of all of her work.

Meet our chair

Jonathan Roberts is Teaching Director and Professor at the Marshall Institute. He leads the development of teaching activities at the Institute, where he has designed and developed the ground-breaking executive MSc programme in Social Business and Entrepreneurship (from 2018) and a Marshall Institute specialism within LSE’s Master of Public Administration programme, the MPA in Social Impact. He has received multiple teaching awards from LSE.

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