Vanessa Guthrie

Vanessa Guthrie is at the forefront of Snap Inc.’s efforts to develop short-form original shows for its Snapchat social media service. Since joining Snap in 2016, the 39-year-old executive has helped create more than 100 mobile programs that attract a growing audience. As of June, those shows in the U.S. reached more than 75% of Generation Z, according to the company, which is particularly focused on that teen to twentysomething demographic. As people stay increasingly at home during the coronavirus pandemic, Guthrie has been adding new shows and helping show creators embrace brevity and small screens. Guthrie has also been integrating augmented-reality filters into new immersive shows. Later this year, the service will debut a show from NBC called Face Forward during which viewers will be able to use Snapchat’s augmented-reality filters for makeovers that mirror the ones happening on screen.