About Us
UNConventional Entertainment is a female-led production company specializing in lifestyle and factual entertainment formats. Led by Founder and President Gena McCarthy, we develop and produce original formats across genres including relationships, home, food, survival, Americana, competition, and crime. A four-time Emmy nominee and a Critics’ Choice Awards winner, McCarthy is a best-in-class talent who has developed, executive produced and launched thousands of hours of premium unscripted television, including some of the biggest franchises of the past two decades. Giant characters, unexpected worlds and dramatic personal stakes anchor her most successful series.
McCarthy founded UNConventional Entertainment in 2023, and in February 2023, signed an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television - Nonfiction. Before launching UNConventional Entertainment, McCarthy spent a decade at A+E Networks, where she ultimately served as Executive Vice President and Head of Programming at Lifetime Unscripted and Head of Programming at FYI. In her role, she oversaw series such as the Critics’ Choice Award-winning blockbuster Married at First Sight, along with the acclaimed Project Runway and the breakthrough hit Dance Moms, among many others.
Before joining A+E, McCarthy worked at Discovery Networks, serving as the original series executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning cultural touchstone Dirty Jobs; she also worked on Mythbusters and the Emmy Award-winning Deadliest Catch.