Aleen Keshishian Talks Selena Gomez’s ‘Rare’ Rollout and Billie Eilish’s Historic $26 Million Apple TV+ Deal
After a decade at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Keshishian launched Lighthouse Management & Media in 2016. The power broker has come to understand the nuances of working with artists, whom she…
In January 2014, Selena Gomez was in Park City, Utah, to promote her role in Rudderless at the Sundance Film Festival. At the time, she was looking for the next step in her career, after growing up as an actress on a series of Disney shows and releasing four albums on Hollywood Records. Through her co-star Billy Crudup, she met Aleen Keshishian, one of Hollywood’s most formidable talent managers, whose star clients include Jennifer Aniston, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd, and Jason Bateman.
Three months later, Keshishian signed Gomez and within a year helped broker a new record deal with Interscope and shepherd the release of Revival, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced Gomez’s first three Mainstream Top 40 No. 1s.
After a decade at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Keshishian launched Lighthouse Management & Media in 2016. The power broker has come to understand the nuances of working with artists, whom she treats like family. “Being a representative for artists, whether you’re their manager or agent or producing partner, you really put their needs, desires, goals and aspirations first,” she says.
With Lighthouse, Keshishian has aimed to “connect the bridge” between music, film, TV, fashion, branding, literary, art, digital, investments, brand and music consulting, and philanthropy. “We work in all of those verticals, and we didn’t feel like there was a company that was doing that,” she says. That has made her an ideal partner for Gomez, who in addition to her music career is a producer on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and involved with campaigns for UNICEF, Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, Pantene, Coach and others. And in Hollywood, Keshishian leveraged her own casting clout to elevate Gomez’s film/TV pedigree, aligning her with screen legends — Robert Downey Jr. (Dolittle), Bill Murray (The Dead Don’t Die) and Rudd (The Fundamentals of Caring) — and veteran directors like Woody Allen (A Rainy Day in New York) and Adam McKay (The Big Short).
Lighthouse was also enlisted by Billie Eilish co-managers Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman to produce and broker the sale of Eilish’s forthcoming documentary to Apple TV+ for $26 million, says Keshishian — the largest ever sale of a documentary in TV history. (The music-doc business is in Keshishian’s blood: Her brother, Alek Keshishian, directed Madonna’s iconic 1991 Truth or Dare film.)
Meanwhile, Gomez is enjoying a career peak, landing her first Hot 100 No. 1 with “Lose You to Love Me” in December, while her first album in five years, Rare, just debuted on the Billboard 200. Ahead of Lighthouse’s fourth full year in operation, Keshishian talks Gomez’s Rare rollout and the value of client longevity.
Selena earned her first Hot 100 No. 1 with “Lose You to Love Me.” What helped push it over the edge?
We did a lot to amplify the success of this album. We launched the album on Jan. 10 — just when we were peaking on radio with “Lose You to Love Me” — and came up with a separate strategy for each [digital service provider]. We created specific video content for YouTube to drive streams — an alternative music video of her playing the piano, vertical videos and interviews with her frequent collaborators, like Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, so that they could really discuss the writing process. When we were in Times Square during release week, we had five billboards from every partner — Amazon, Spotify, Apple, YouTube and MTV.
How did you strategize internationally for the Rare rollout?
In China specifically, my partner Zack [Morgenroth] met with various partners in the region — Weibo; Douyin, the Chinese TikTok; Tencent/QQ [instant messaging software]; and NetEase, all of these companies — to identify opportunities for Lighthouse’s business clients. We relaunched Selena’s social media there and geared it toward their market by translating all of her assets. In the music space, we couldn’t really look at other artists who had done this, so we were really trying to be disruptive and focus on branding in the Asian market, which we’ve been doing for decades for other clients as well, people like Mark Ruffalo and Paul Rudd, whose films have been successful there.
Brand deals are a big part of your business. How do you know if something will be a good fit for a client?
For all of our clients, we’re really searching for brand partnerships that are authentic and organic to each artist and their lifestyle. Consumers right now are so sophisticated that they can spot inauthentic partnerships, and something that is really important to us is to only approach brands that are the right fit. With Selena, Coca-Cola was her favorite drink, so it seemed like an obvious partnership when we approached them. Everything we do with Selena in music, the brands we work with closely help us amplify each project.
Gomez has been in film and TV almost her whole life. What are your future plans there?
There are several film/TV projects we’re working on now that will be announced in the next few months. One of the things that we like doing with Selena and our other clients is producing projects they are both in and not in, so we’re really proud of her work with Netflix as a producer on Living Undocumented, a docuseries that she really related to and felt she could bring something to, and 13 Reasons Why. There’s another new exciting project we haven’t announced yet with Jordan Peele, which will be at Amazon.
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Prior to launching Lighthouse, you executive produced films including My Idiot Brother, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and others. What’s coming up next in this space?
We are working on a lot of upcoming projects in the producer space. I executive produced a music based film Indian Boy Band, based on the life story of songwriter Savan Kotecha, who has written hits for Ariana Grande, One Direction and the Weeknd, which we sold to Universal. We also sold and have produced films including Bombshell and scripted and unscripted television, including Ryan Murphy’s Ratched at Netflix and others.
How did you get involved in the Billie Eilish documentary deal?
We have a long-standing relationship with Darkroom and Interscope. They and Billie’s co-managers, Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman, wanted to make a doc, so we helped produce it. We found the right director [R.J. Cutler] and acted as the sales agent for the film. So in conjunction with Darkroom, Interscope and Danny and Brandon, we brokered the largest sale in music documentary history, which is obviously exciting, but the fact that we had such long-standing relationships with these companies — Sony, Paramount, Warner, Apple, Netflix — puts us in a position where we can speak to the heads of these companies. That’s probably why we can be helpful.
You met some of your earliest collaborators at Harvard University, including Darren Aronofsky, Jesse Peretz and others. How did that education set you on this path?
It’s fun for me because when I started working with director/producer Jesse Peretz (Juliet, Naked, Orange Is The New Black), who you know started [as an early bassist] in the Lemonheads and was a music video director, and then with filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem For A Dream), and writer/producer Maya Forbes (Infinitely Polar Bear, Monsters vs. Aliens), they hadn’t really done anything. They were just people I thought were really talented. It was really fun to represent them and help them realize their dreams.
You’ve worked with Gwyneth Paltrow in the development of her Goop brand as well, which was valued at $250 million in 2018. Did that inspire you in building your own Lighthouse empire?
Gwyneth is a great example of a woman who has no ceiling. She is incredibly talented, ambitious and hard working. That’s how she feels about all women, that they should follow their dreams and go for it. She’s a brilliant person. But Lighthouse was more from her encouragement, and less me looking at what she had done [with Goop]. We are all so different and everyone has to be the very best version of themselves, but again I think that’s definitely what made her push me, and I was really motivated by her sentiments and her words.
Most of your clients have been career-long relationships. What is the biggest asset in building longevity with them? An intimacy?
It’s definitely that. I remember meeting Gwyneth when I was an intern on a Broadway play. She was about 16 and hadn’t really acted yet. It’s incredibly fun when you get to meet people in the very, very beginning of their career, and you get to see the growth. I also represent Billy Crudup, who is one of the stars of Apple TV’s The Morning Show. I remember being a casting assistant and seeing him in his first play when he graduated from drama school and just being overwhelmed by his talent. The fact that I get to work with him now and that I get to see the evolution of his talent and artists that have that longevity is truly gratifying.
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 25, 2020 issue of Billboard.
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