Gabriela Cocco-Sanchez never thought she would end up in the entertainment sector. Her parents owned a martial arts academy, and growing up, she spent almost 20 years in the dojang training and teaching tae kwon do. It seemed like a given that she would join the family business.
That all changed when her dear friend and mentor Jesus Laura told her about an opening at EMI Records Latin America in 1998. Since then, Cocco-Sanchez has built an impressive résumé promoting Latin content, from MTV Latin America to Universal Music’s International Music Feed and GoTV Networks. She was even named one of Billboard’s “30 under 30” in 2007, along with Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. “He did a lot better,” Cocco-Sanchez jokes.
Today, she is vice president at Bunim/Murray Production’s Latin division, BMP Latin. Cocco-Sanchez is paving the way in Latin American reality television, creating and developing content for the US-based Hispanic millennial.
“Latin reality is a new genre for most networks,” says Cocco-Sanchez. “But more and more people are investing in the space, and I think if we get a couple of hits out there, we’ll get more people to invest.”