EXCLUSIVE: Higher Ground, the production company of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has appointed Anikah McLaren to serve as Head of Film, Deadline can exclusively reveal.
McLaren joins from the recently shuttered Participant, where she spent a little over five years as Executive Vice President of Narrative Film, co-running the department as a key member of the leadership team. In her new role, she will lead Higher Ground’s scripted film division, reporting to President Vinnie Malhotra.
McLaren joins a team that also includes Jessie Dicovitsky, who is Head of Television, and Ethan Lewis, who oversees Higher Ground’s unscripted and non-fiction content. She’ll be based out of Los Angeles and will have VP of Film Mark Wright reporting to her.
“Throughout her wide-ranging career, Anikah has proven she can make bold, provocative, and cinematic visions a reality,” observed Malhotra in a statement to Deadline. “She brings invaluable experience, a track record of excellent taste, and a genuine commitment to supporting filmmakers and their teams. We are thrilled to welcome her to Higher Ground, and look forward to her leading the charge for our growing film slate.”
Stated McLaren, “I have loved seeing what Higher Ground has been able to build in such a short time. It is an honor to join the Obamas and rest of the brilliant Higher Ground team in crafting an even bigger and bolder film slate. Alongside some of the world’s most talented filmmakers, we will deliver a wide range of movies that both reach large audiences and make an indelible impact on culture.”
During her time at Participant, McLaren produced John Ridley’s Shirley, a Netflix biopic on U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, which stars Regina King. She was also instrumental in the making of Warner Bros’ Academy Award winner Judas and the Black Messiah and Minhal Baig’s Independent Spirit Awards-nominated coming-of-age drama We Grown Now.
Prior to Participant, McLaren was at Universal, rising from a Creative Executive role alongside Donna Langley to Vice President of Production and Development. During her eight-year tenure, she worked on a wide variety of commercial films, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Bourne Legacy, The Best Man Holiday, Lone Survivor, and The Purge. Before that, she was hired as Senior Vice President at Fox Searchlight Pictures to focus on filmmaker-driven films, overseeing The Old Man and the Gun and My Cousin Rachel, while developing an eclectic slate of projects that included Eva Longoria’s directorial debut Flamin’ Hot.
An active member of the Executive Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, McLaren began her film career with assistant jobs at Miramax Films and Focus Features, where she was promoted to Manager of Film after assisting Co-Chairman and producer James Schamus. She received her BA in English from George Washington University.
Since its 2018 founding, Higher Ground Productions has quickly established its ability to shepherd projects of both critical and commercial appeal. The company’s first release was American Factory, the 2019 documentary examining a Chinese billionaire’s opening of a factory in an abandoned Ohio GM plant, which won an Academy Award and an Emmy, among other accolades. Most recently, the company produced Leave the World Behind, Sam Esmail’s apocalyptic Netflix thriller starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke, which clocked 121 million views within its first few weeks on the service and now sits at #5 on Netflix’s list recognizing its most popular English-language films of all time.
Boasting a first-look podcast deal with Audible, Higher Ground produces film and television exclusively with Netflix. Other projects thus far have included George C. Wolfe’s historical drama Rustin, which brought star Colman Domingo Academy Award and SAG Award nominations for his portrayal of civil rights and gay rights activist Bayard Rustin, as well as the Academy Award-nominated American Symphony and Crip Camp, Fatherhood, Becoming, and Worth.
Currently, Higher Ground is developing Grant Singer’s Chicago-set crime thriller Dyersville, based on real events — a package acquired in a competitive situation — as well as the rom-com Fling, produced by and starring Lupita Nyong’o, which adapts the novel by J.F. Murray. Additionally in the works is a feature adaptation of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David W. Blight.
