Maureen Taran.

As a longtime advocate of comedians and the genre, Taran served as a creative executive for the HA Comedy Festival: The Art of Comedy. The standup comedy special hosted by Anjelah Johnson aired on HBO Max in August of 2020 and showcased appearances from Latinx comedic talents including Carmen Lynch, Mark Viera, Gina Brillon and more. The festival was part of the first slate of comedy programming to debut on the new streaming platform. Taran joined truTV in 2015 in the network’s first executive talent role, where she leveraged her 20+ years of experience and relationships with talent, agencies and managers to assist with the network’s evolution into the comedy space. Before joining truTV, Taran served as vice president of management and production at New Wave Entertainment, and vice president of original programming at EPIX. Earlier in her career, she held VP roles at Barry Katz Entertainment Group where she guided the careers of comedians including Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, Dane Cook, Tracy Morgan and Gary Gulman, and as the Vice President of Programming for The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. A proud Canadian and unabashed lover of Bruce Springsteen, Taran earned a bachelor's degree in film & communications studies from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.