Tara Duncan
Tara Duncan is president of Onyx Collective.
In her first year at The Walt Disney Company, Duncan spearheaded the formation of Onyx Collective, a premium content brand under Disney Entertainment that focuses on artists of color and underrepresented voices with programming exclusively available to stream on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories. The debut project for Onyx Collective, documentary “Summer of Soul (Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award®, BAFTA Award, GRAMMY®, Independent Spirit Award, Peabody Award and PGA Award in Onyx Collective’s first year of eligibility. Additionally, the brand received four Emmy® nominations for docuseries “The 1619 Project” and Peabody Award-winning documentary film “Aftershock,” in which “The 1619 Project” won for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, marking Onyx Collective’s first Emmy win, also in its first year of eligibility.
In its sophomore year, Onyx Collective continues to build its slate of premium programming with comedy series “Deli Boys,” about a Pakistani-American crime family starring Poorna Jagannathan, Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, Alfie Fuller, Brian George, created by Abdullah Saeed; and “How to Die Alone,” from Natasha Rothwell who will star, write and co-showrun the series; drama series “Queenie,” a book-to-series adaptation from author Candice Carty-Williams; true-crime docuseries “Ring of Fire: The Life of Annie Mae Aquash,” directed by Yvonne Russo, examining the extraordinary life and unraveling the decades-old mystery behind the murder of Annie Mae Aquash; and “Black Twitter” (WT), a three-part docuseries from Prentice Penny about the history and impact of Black Twitter. These titles join the brand’s current slate which includes second seasons of legal drama “Reasonable Doubt,” from producers Raamla Mohamed, Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore; and “UnPrisoned,” starring and executive produced by Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo.”
Onyx Collective’s roster of prolific creators also includes Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media (“Black Panther,” “Judas and the Black Messiah”); writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) and his production company Family Owned; writer-producer Jason Kim (“Barry,” “KPOP”); Academy Award-winning filmmaker Joseph Patel (“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”); writer, producer and director Prentice Penny’s Penny for Your Thoughts; writer and comedian Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure,” “SNL”); Yara Shahidi with her 7th Sun Production Company; and writer-producer Erika Green Swafford and her production company, Chocolate Girl Wonder.
Throughout her tenure at The Walt Disney Company, Duncan has been named to Variety’s list of Power of Women and their annual Inclusion Impact Report, CableFax’s list of 100 Top Power Players, ESSENCE’S list of Black Women in Hollywood, and The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100 list.
Duncan joined Disney Entertainment Television from her overall deal at Hulu, where she curated a strong slate of projects, including an adaptation of Zakiya Dalila Harris’ acclaimed novel “The Other Black Girl,” which she won with Temple Hill Entertainment in a highly competitive bidding war. Before joining Hulu, she was a senior creative executive at Netflix; and prior to that, she was a key creative executive at AMC. She started her career at Section Eight, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh’s production company.
