Nando Vila is Head of Studio at Exile, the leading Spanish-language studio creating and developing premium, bilingual original content for more than 550 million Spanish speakers worldwide. The studio’s purpose is to enable Latino and Hispanic communities to create and share content that reaches and resonates with universal audiences, thereby helping to provide more and better representation of creators, producers, and people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Vila oversees the studio’s content and production strategy, focusing on creating quality content highlighting the Hispanic experience with a global appeal and leveraging opportunities to adopt new formats and technologies to engage, reach, and entertain audiences across all platforms. Currently, Vila leads a team that is constantly mining for compelling, entertaining, engaging, and diverse stories and content to bring to, and amplify among, a global audience.
Under Vila’s leadership, Exile is currently developing several high-profile projects, including a partnership with George R.R. Martin’s to produce “Hunter’s Run” the only one among Martin’s body of work that features a Latino lead, a Lucía Puenzo-directed global series about reclaiming pre-Columbian art pieces and bringing them back to their original territory; and a queer romantic comedy led by Mexican comedian Manu Nna. He also co-produced “Los Reyes del Mundo” in collaboration with some of the most young and diverse from Latin America. The production won the San Sebastian Film Festival Golden Shell and was a 2023 Oscar contender.
Recently, Vila spearheaded a deal between Exile and Trojan Horse Media, a film, television, and podcast production company led by Alex Fumero and Kareem Tabsch, to tell larger-than-life, stranger-than-fiction stories with a deeper meaning. The first collaborative project came to life in the podcast series, “More Than A Movie: American Me”, about the real-life drama surrounding Edward James Olmos’ controversial film, which aired in iHeart Media’s MyCultura.
Moreover, Vila’s vision has led Exile to recently solidify entertainment projects with Fifth Season and Gran Vía Productions and sign an alliance with German-based Komplizen Film. In addition, Exile recently announced its production of the Mexican film “No Voy a Pedirle a Nadie que Me Crea”, based on the homonymous book by Mexican writer Juan Pablo Villalobos, directed by Fernando Frías, and produced in collaboration with Zeta Studios; the animated franchise “Lil’ Heroes”, based on the NFT collection by Spanish artist Edgar Plans, which named Kevin Shinick as showrunner in October; and recently premiered the acclaimed film “Los Reyes del Mundo” directed by Laura Mora, which won a Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Additionally, timed to coincide with the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Exile launched “The Best Soccer Podcast in the World” in English and Spanish, together with MyCultura. The 12-episode series is executive produced and hosted by Vila and producer and writer, Zac Lee Rigg.
Prior to joining Exile, Vila was Vice President of Programming at Fusion TV, where he executive produced, created, and hosted the political sketch comedy show, “Happy Ending;” created and hosted “Midterm Mayhem: The Ultimate Political Smackdown” alongside Kal Penn; and was the creator and host of “The Soccer Gods.” He also hosted the popular Gimlet Media podcast, “We Came to Win,” an anthology series about beloved World Cup stories, which was named one of the best podcasts of 2018 by The Atlantic.
While at Fusion TV, during the 2016 election cycle, Vila executive produced the Emmy-nominated documentary “The Naked Truth: Trumpland,” which profiled the people who fueled the Trump candidacy. He also served as a contributor to “The Feed” and “America with Jorge Ramos” as well as Fusion’s coverage of the 2014 midterm and 2016 presidential elections.
In 2014, Vila was recognized by Forbes magazine in their “30 under 30” feature that profiled the next generation of media entrepreneurs.
Vila holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Boston College. He was born and raised in Miami, and now resides in Los Angeles.
