Campus News

Sixty Peabody finalists named; Rashida Jones to host ceremony

Jones
Rashida Jones

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors has selected 60 finalists that represent the most compelling and empowering stories released in electronic media during 2016. As part of a new distinction introduced last year, jurors chose 60 finalists out of 1,200 entries from television, radio and the web. The Peabody Awards are based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Beginning April 12, the winning Peabody programs will be revealed over the next several weeks in a succession of announcements by category. The 60 Peabody Awards finalists, listed by category and in alphabetical order with network or platform in ­parentheses, are online at https://t.uga.edu/37Y.

Peabody Award winners and finalists will be celebrated at a gala event on May 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. The event will be taped for a television special to air on both PBS and FUSION networks June 2 at 9 p.m. EST and PST. Rashida Jones, a previous Peabody Award winner for Parks and Recreation, will serve as host.

Time Inc.’s Entertainment Weekly has been named official media partner for the 76th annual Peabody Awards Ceremony and a contributing sponsor of the FUSION after party. The deal includes
exclusive content in the print magazine and on EW.com. Supporting sponsors of the 76th annual Peabody Awards ceremony include the Emerson Collective, an organization focused on education, immigration reform, the environment and other social justice initiatives, and The Coca-Cola Co.

Jones is an actor, director, producer, screenwriter, musician and activist. She currently stars in the hit TBS series Angie Tribeca in which she plays the title role, in addition to working behind the camera as executive producer and a director of some episodes.

A multi-hyphenate in the entertainment space, Jones was nominated this past year for an NAACP Image Award for co-writing the first episode of Netflix’s third season of Black Mirror. She also developed Claws on TNT, a nail salon turned money-laundering-front dramedy, set to premiere this summer. On April 21, she will be releasing a docu-series on Netflix, Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, a continued exploration of themes discovered in her Emmy-nominated documentary in 2015, Hot Girls Wanted. The series will focus on society’s relationship with sex and technology. Fans grew to love Jones from her roles on The Office and Parks and Recreation and through the romantic film that she wrote and starred in, Celeste and Jesse Forever.