Chris Rice leaving Fifth Season at end of year

Chris Rice, co-CEO of Fifth Season, is to leave his post at the company when his contract expires at the end of this year. 

On Rice’s departure, fellow co-CEO Graham Taylor will become sole CEO of the US- and UK-based finance, production and sales operation, known for features including Friendship and Cha Cha Real Smooth and such streaming series as Severance and Tokyo Vice. 

Rice said in a memo to Fifth Season staff that he will remain as an advisor to the company and continue working on some of the company’s projects, “while also re-embracing my producorial roots through a first-look deal with the studio.” 

UK transplant Rice joined the global TV team of Hollywood agency WME in 2010 and founded Endeavor Content with independent film finance expert Taylor in 2017. The company was spun off from Endeavor/WME and rebranded as Fifth Season after South Korea’s CJ ENM became majority owner in 2022. 

In his staff memo, Rice recalled his 15-year partnership with Taylor: “We were a small band of producers, sales agents and distribution execs trying to innovate on how film and television could be produced, financed and distributed from inside a talent agency. We believed early on in a few things that seem obvious today: that there were ways creatives could have more ownership of their rights; that storytelling could come from a more global set of voices; and that the mediums of film and television would start to merge creatively.”

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