Hollywood, Health & Society

What Hollywood, Health & Society does

Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) is a consulting and education program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, founded in 2001 and based in Los Angeles. It provides informational resources and expert services to the entertainment industry, serving television writers, showrunners, and producers who need accurate health, safety, and social-issue information for their storylines. The organization has consulted on more than 40 major TV shows including The Pitt, Grey's Anatomy, The Good Doctor, Breaking Bad, Station 19, and All American.

The program's core products are an expert knowledge base expressed through proprietary Tip Sheets covering mental health, palliative care, climate, HIV, abortion, sleep disorders, diplomacy, gun guidelines, and other topics; direct Expert Consultation Services that brief writers' rooms; Research Publications including Media Impact Project studies; the annual Norman Lear Awards (formerly Sentinel Awards); Quarterly Newsletters; and events such as Do the Write Thing mixers and ATX TV Festival panels. Distribution is event-driven, combining direct outreach to writers' rooms, industry panels, a multi-platform social media presence, and earned media in outlets such as Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Times.

HH&S operates as a free service funded through its parent institution USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center and likely grant funding rather than commercial revenue. It maintains strategic partnerships with Project Sleep (sleep health) and Plastic Pollution Coalition (environmental health) and is governed as an academic program under USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, with Kate Folb serving as Director. The organization does not have external investors, and pricing is not disclosed because services are provided at no charge to entertainment industry professionals.

Name

Hollywood, Health & Society

Legal name

Hollywood, Health & Society

Website

https://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Hollywood, Health & Society is a free consulting program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center that provides TV writers, showrunners, and producers with expert-verified health, safety, and social-issue information for accurate television storylines.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entertainment Industry Health Communication Consulting

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE/EHS) Publishing (MPAJACAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Long-Form Writing & Article Platforms (MPACAIAC)

Keywords

• Health communication consulting
• Entertainment industry consultation
• Media research services
• Educational content production
• TV writers briefing services

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional Funding: As a program of USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, HH&S is funded through university resources and likely grants rather than commercial revenue.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

HH&S provides free expert consultation and educational resources to television writers, showrunners, and producers, helping them portray health, safety, and social issues accurately in storylines. Its offerings include direct writers' room briefings by subject matter experts, a library of evidence-based Tip Sheets on topics such as mental health, palliative care, sleep disorders, climate, HIV, and diplomacy, original research publications analyzing media content, and the annual Norman Lear Awards recognizing impactful health-focused storytelling.

Product overview

Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) is a consulting and education program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center that provides informational resources and expert services to the entertainment industry. Its core offerings include Tip Sheets (evidence-based topic guides), Expert Consultation Services (direct briefings for writers' rooms), Research Publications (media impact studies), and the Norman Lear Awards (annual recognition program). These products work together to help television and film creators portray health, safety, and social issues accurately and responsibly.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tip Sheets Evidence-based educational resource sheets providing guidance on health, social, and policy topics (e.g., palliative care, diplomacy over war, sleep apnea, mental health stigma, abortion language, gun violence) for TV writers and producers to reference when crafting storylines.
• Expert Consultation Services Direct access to subject matter experts who brief writers' rooms and producers on accurate portrayals of health, safety, and social topics for television and film productions, provided at no cost to entertainment industry professionals.
• Research Publications Studies and reports analyzing media content related to health and social issues, including Media Impact Project analyses such as the Life & Death on The Pitt study examining entertainment's effect on public understanding of healthcare.
• Norman Lear Awards (formerly Sentinel Awards) Annual awards program recognizing television shows that make a positive impact through storylines addressing health and social issues. Recent honorees include The Pitt, Matlock, and Shrinking; 11 shows were honored at the 2023 Sentinel Awards.
• Quarterly Newsletters Seasonal email publications (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter editions) highlighting recent work, panel discussions, research findings, new tip sheets, and industry impact for entertainment industry subscribers.
• Do the Write Thing Mixers Networking and panel events connecting entertainment industry professionals with health experts, with particular focus on BIPOC creative community representation in entertainment.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 40 major TV shows consulted including hit series on major networks
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Project SleepcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to work with TV writers and producers to encourage storylines about sleep health and sleep disorders that are accurate, informative and entertaining. Project Sleep is a nonprofit focused on raising awareness about sleep health, sleep equity, and sleep disorders.
• Plastic Pollution CoalitioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint partnership on Plastic Kills horror short film competition and Independence from Plastic short film contest. Organizations collaborated on Plastic Pollution Toxic Tour for television and film writers.
• USC Annenberg Norman Lear CenterflagshipOthersHH&S is a program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center. The Norman Lear Center is an academic research institute at USC Annenberg focused on entertainment industry research and health communication.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Common Sense Media: A larger nonprofit that rates and reviews media for age-appropriateness and social impact. Shares HH&S's mission of informing better media consumption and engaging the entertainment industry, but at a broader scale across all media types rather than focusing on TV writers' rooms.
• PBS (Public Broadcasting Service): A major public-media producer and broadcaster of educational, health, and social-issue content. Comparable to HH&S as a producer of health-and-social-issue media content, but operates as a producer/distributor rather than a writer-consultation service.

Others

• USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center: The parent academic institute of HH&S at USC Annenberg. Operates adjacent research programs (e.g., Media Impact Project) and shares faculty and funding channels; comparable as a research-and-policy organization, but more academic and not industry-facing in the same direct way as HH&S.

Direct peers

• Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: A nonprofit that partners directly with the entertainment industry to research and improve the portrayal of gender and identity in media. Closely analogous to HH&S in mission (entertainment consulting for social accuracy), funding model (nonprofit), and target customer (writers and producers).
• Color of Change: A racial-justice organization that runs entertainment-industry campaigns to influence representation and storytelling in TV and film. Comparable in targeting Hollywood creators for social-accuracy outcomes, though with a sharper advocacy orientation.
• GLAAD: A media advocacy nonprofit that engages Hollywood writers, producers, and studios to improve LGBTQ representation in entertainment. Comparable service model (consultation, resources, awards adjacency) and entertainment-industry GTM as HH&S, but focused on LGBTQ accuracy rather than health/safety.

Emerging players

• Sandy Hook Promise: A gun-violence prevention nonprofit that has partnered with entertainment industry on portrayal guidelines and messaging (e.g., the 'No Notoriety' program). Overlaps with HH&S on a single topic (firearm portrayal) but does not run a general health/medical consultation practice.
• The Representation Project: A nonprofit founded by Jennifer Siebel Newsom that uses film and media to shift public narratives on gender, race, and social issues. Comparable to HH&S in mission (media as a lever for social impact) and in producing educational materials for creators and audiences, though more advocacy-oriented.
• Parents Television Council: A nonprofit that monitors and advocates on TV content for its impact on families and children. Shares the accuracy-and-impact theme with HH&S but operates more as a watchdog/critic than a writer's-room consultative partner.

Regional players

• Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: A gun-violence prevention organization that has produced entertainment-industry guidelines and engaged Hollywood on firearm portrayal. Comparable to HH&S as a content-accuracy partner for one topic area (gun violence) but lacks HH&S's breadth across health topics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@LearCenter
• Facebookfacebook.com/HollywoodHealth
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hollywood-health-society
• Instagraminstagram.com/hollywdhealth
• TikToktiktok.com/@hollywdhealth

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Hollywood, Health & Society