Darren Walker has only been on the job as president and CEO of Anonymous Content for five months so the noise that he heard at the company’s New York City office Wednesday morning was something new.
“I walked into yelps and screams and cheers,” Walker tells me. “I felt like I was at a college football game.”
For good reason — Anonymous clients earned 10 Emmy nominations, including lead actress in limited series or movie for Sally Field for her work in Netflix’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures.”
Walker first met the acting icon when she was awarded the National Medal of Arts from Pres. Obama in 2015. “We just started this conversation, and we have been in this dialog for all these years. It’s deeply personal,” Walker said. “After my partner died, Sally was amazing. Four years later, I called her when I went on my first date. So to see her name then to turn up here on the list of clients with Emmy nomination…She had already sent me an email.”
In addition to Field, another notable Emmy nominee is Mathew Rhys, who picked up two for his work on “The Beast Within Me” and “Widow’s Bay.” It’s the first time in more than 30 years that an actor got lead noms the same year in both limited series/movie and comedy. Betty Gilpin also nabbed a nom for “Widow’s Bay.” Sarah Pidgeon was recognized with a nod for her portrayal of Carolyn Bessette in “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn.”
“To everyone across Anonymous Content who helped discover, develop, represent, produce, and champion these projects: Thank you—and well done,” Walker wrote in an email to Anonymous employees on Wednesday. “Much of our work happens behind the scenes, but our impact transcends the screen. This is why we remain committed to becoming the best home for singular talent; the best platform for content that builds connection and community; the kind of company that attracts and retains the best people because of all we can do together.”
Walker told me the Emmy nominations are further proof that Anonymous Content’s ship is being righted after the company was sent sideways following the death of founder Steve Golin in 2019. Laurene Powell Jobs, whose Emerson Collective acquired a stake in the company in 2016, was instrumental in bringing Walker to Anonymous from the Ford Foundation, where he had been for 12 years.
“It has not been an easy few years [at Anonymous] and that’s not a secret,” Walker said. “Knowing that under not the best circumstances, they’re able to achieve this — I can’t really take credit for what they did because it’s only been five months for me — it’s pretty remarkable and so I can imagine what we’ll be able to do with leadership, and candidly, with more capital, because we will have that, too.”
So what was Field’s dating advice?
“I hadn’t been on a date with a man in 28 years, since I was 30 years old,” Walker recalled. “I called her from the Acela train coming from Washington. She said, ‘Darren, calm down,’ because I was so excited…She said, ‘Take your time. You will find love again.’ She was just so motherly.”
