Chris Coelen
Chris Coelen is an American television creator and producer who has been heralded "Reality's Biggest Hitmaker." He created and produces Love Is Blind, which ranks as the top unscripted series of all time, in addition to creating and producing The Ultimatum, Perfect Match and the American version of Married at First Sight.
Coelen is the founder and CEO of Kinetic Content, which launched in 2010, and was acquired by European Broadcast group ProSiebenSat.1 Media later that year. Peter Chernin's North Road Company acquired Kinetic in July, 2022.
Early life
Coelen was born in 1968 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was raised in Massachusetts in a family with multi-cultural heritage, including his mother's Native American background, his father's Dutch-Irish background, and his siblings of Vietnamese and Korean descent.Career
Fox Entertainment News
While in college, Coelen aimed to be a journalist and interned at Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Entertainment News, which produced a daily business-focused entertainment news program. Moving to Los Angeles at 21, he was hired on staff at Fox as a news producer after procuring an interview with Kelsey Grammer, who was appearing in court on drug charges.Agency for the Performing Arts
In 1992, Coelen joined the Agency for the Performing Arts and began representing on-air talent. His first client was a morning news anchor in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His roster grew to include Martha Quinn, Rex Reed, Maty Monfort, Jane Wallace and Ryan Seacrest.United Talent Agency
In 1996, Coelen joined United Talent Agency, becoming a member of the talent department. In 2001, coinciding with the American emergence of Survivor, Coelen created the Alternative Department and subsequently became a partner at the agency.At UTA, Coelen represented producer clients such as Stan Lee, Michael Davies , R. J. Cutler , Thom Beers , Craig Piligian, Cris Abrego, Mark Cronin, Joel Gallen, Gay Rosenthal, Bill Guttentag, Andrew Glassman, Stuart Krasnow, World of Wonder, Evolution Media, and publisher Judith Regan.
Having been exposed to British TV shows like The Word, The Big Breakfast, and TFI Friday, Coelen stated, "I couldn't work out why there was nothing like it on TV in the US." He expanded his client base to include British production companies like Red Production Company, Shed Productions, Wall to Wall Media, Monkey Kingdom, Maverick Television, Objective Media Group, Avalon, Ricochet and RDF Media, leading UTA to become known as "the agency of choice for UK Indies." In 2005, Colin Robertson from Broadcast described Coelen as "an alarmingly youthful bloke who looks as if he’d rather be perched on a surfboard than sitting in an air-conditioned office, is a huge fan of British producers."
Coelen represented international personalities such as Graham Norton, Derren Brown, and Jo Frost, and he expanded beyond the UK, representing companies in Holland, Sweden and New Zealand's Julie Christie. Said Coelen, "There are smart TV producers in every market in the world. The U.S. doesn't have a lock on that."
Coelen's client roster included American talent including Jessica Simpson, Ryan Seacrest, Pamela Anderson, Trading Spaces host Paige Davis, Ken Jennings, Carmen Electra, Michael Weatherly, and Paget Brewster.
While at UTA, Coelen helped package over five dozen projects including Wife Swap, Supernanny, Average Joe, The Simple Life, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Worst Case Scenario, The Residents, Stripperella, Law & Order: Crime & Punishment.
As an agent, Coelen came up with the concept for The Surreal Life'', introduced his clients, Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego, to one another, and pitched the idea to them as a vehicle for them to produce together. The show was sold to the WB and subsequently to VH1.
RDF USA
In 2006, Coelen joined RDF as the CEO of RDF USA, which had been one of his clients at UTA. Coelen stated, "As an agent you can't produce...I was drawn by the opportunity to be a vested part of this business, to be on the same team as the people that I was representing.”Coelen was hired by Stephen Lambert, RDF's chief creative officer and David Frank, RDF's CEO, Coelen was given the task of expanding the firm’s North American business and was its first corporate employee in the U.S.; he oversaw and sold more than 30 shows to American networks and cable channels including Wife Swap, Secret Millionaire, Don't Forget the Lyrics, Hitched or Ditched, ''Addicted to Beauty, Find My Family, How To Look Good Naked, The Two Coreys, Hardcore Pawn, and One Big Happy Family''
While at RDF, Coelen expanded the company's activities to include a management company, Pangea Management Group.
In May 2007, ABC announced plans to re-order Wife Swap and put it into syndication.
In June 2007, Pangea joined in a partnership with Bravo to manage the careers of its reality talent, in an effort to boost the careers of talent appearing in the network’s programming. In announcing the deal, Frances Berwick, GM of Bravo, said Bravo partnered with Pangea because they were getting "requests for these people: advertisers; networks who wanted experts on-air; personal appearances, consumer products -- stuff should be making money on, frankly." Bravo President Lauren Zalaznick said, “While television is at our core and will always be the heart of what we do, Bravo Media extends that content and brand to every platform to suit our passionate consumers’ lifestyles.” Coelen added “Bravo is really smart and forward-thinking" and "it's a way to capitalize on the show's brand." Pangea's clients included chefs such as Richard Blais and Brian Malarkey.
In July 2007, Don't Forget the Lyrics premiered on Fox and became the number one show in its time slot.
In 2008, Coelen was elected to the NATPE board, serving with co-chairs Kevin Beggs and Roma Khanna.
In December 2008, Secret Millionaire premiered on Fox, featuring wealthy individuals who live incognito in everyday neighborhoods, deciding whether to give up to $100,000 of their own money to deserving residents. Coelen sold a second season to ABC in 2009.
In 2009, Omnicom Media Group and RDF formed a "first-of-its-kind strategic venture" with RDF serving as OMG’s exclusive content-creation partner in all areas except sports and minority programming. As part of the venture, RDF acquired a majority shareholding in Full Circle Entertainment, headed by branded entertainment veteran Robert Riesenberg, who reported to Coelen. Coelen stated, "The huge thrust of the deal is about content creation. With all of the things that are happening in the business — the economy, the TiVo effect and declining viewership — the role of the advertiser has never been more important.” Steve Grubbs, chief executive of Omnicom Media Group’s entertainment and sports division, stated ““This alignment with RDF gives us a direct line into a major production and distribution company, which will help us create content that will directly tie our clients’ brands into that content”
In 2009, RDF expanded Coelen's responsibilities, naming him Group Director of North America.
TV Week named Coelen one of its "12 To Watch" in regard to his impact on the media industry in 2009 - on a list alongside Oprah Winfrey, Jason Kilar, Les Moonves, Jay Leno and Barack Obama.
Coelen left RDF in December 2009 amid reports of a clash with UK management.
Kinetic Content
In March 2010, Coelen founded Kinetic Content, personally financing the company and announcing a formal launch in April 2010 at MIPTV in Cannes. He said he envisioned the company being “creatively led and being very, very robust from a creative perspective.”Coelen immediately established exclusive programming ventures with UK broadcasters Channel 4 and STV, plus exclusive deals with the new company of Survivor creator Charlie Parsons as well as the Dutch company Absolutely Independent.
In September 2010, Coelen sold a 51% stake in Kinetic to ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Europe’s second largest broadcast group, giving Kinetic access to 30 networks in 16 countries, including Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, and became part of the Red Arrow Entertainment Group.
In 2011, Coelen led the Advisory Board for the Factual Entertainment Forum, the precursor to media industry conference Realscreen West, along with Rob Sharenow and Sharon Levy.
At the end of 2011, Coelen launched Kinetic's first broadcast network series, You Deserve It, in collaboration with Deal or No Deal creator Dick de Rijk. You Deserve It aired on ABC and was hosted by Chris Harrison.
In January 2012, Coelen teamed with Betty White to launch Betty White's Off Their Rockers on NBC, based on the Belgian format Benidorm Bastards.
In January 2013, The Taste premiered on ABC in January 2013. Coelen teamed with fellow Executive Producers Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson to sell The Taste; and built the food-based competition-elimination program around Bourdain. Coelen and his team integrated advertisers including Hellmann’s/Best Foods and Ford, along with trade-out partners Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods Market, Alamos and Southwest Airlines. Featuring chefs including Ludo Lefebvre, Marcus Samuelsson, Brian Malarkey, José Andrés and others, The Taste ran for three seasons on ABC, and the format was produced for Channel 4 in the UK in 2014.
In May 2014, with Coelen as Executive Producer, Little Women: LA launched on Lifetime with high ratings and was immediately re-ordered, Little Women: LA ultimately ran eight seasons and spawned several spin-offs including the highly-rated Little Women: Atlanta, Little Women: New York, Little Women: Dallas and Terra's Little Family.
In July 2014, Married at First Sight launched on the fyi network. It scored record ratings and was immediately moved to AETN's larger networks.
In 2018, Coelen created Love Is Blind and sold it to Netflix.
By 2019, Red Arrow bought out the entirety of Kinetic, and Coelen extended his deal to continue as Kinetic's CEO.
In February 2020, Love Is Blind premiered and was immediately ranked as the number one show on the platform. Alex Abad-Santos of VOX wrote that “according to Netflix, it is the most viewed program—show or series—in the United States right now. Love Is Blind’s contestants and their triumphs and follies have become part of a national conversation.”
In August 2020, Married at First Sight received a six-season guaranteed order from Lifetime in what was described as one of the "largest orders ever" for a television show.
In April 2022, The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On, also created by Coelen, premiered on Netflix.
In July 2022, Kinetic was acquired by Peter Chernin's North Road, as part of the launch of a new premium content company.
Also in July 2022, Coelen launched Claim to Fame on ABC/Hulu.
In February 2023, Perfect Match, created by Coelen, launched on Netflix.
In May 2023, The Ultimatum: Queer Love, created by Coelen, premiered on Netflix.
In January 2025, Married at First Sight moved to Peacock in a competitive situation, landing what Variety called a "massive three-season order" and the show launched on Peacock in October 2025.