How Dhar Mann Studios is adapting to new collaborations and partnerships
Creators as documentary distributors
NIL prom season, creators’ economic impact and Knicks virality
Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
Inside Dhar Mann Studios
BURBANK, Calif. — At the expansive Dhar Mann Studios last month, between more than 60 sets ranging from a shopping mall and a jail to the interior of an airplane, I watched a group of actors film a scene about a celebrity disguised as a homeless woman delivering moral lessons to a vapid and cruel influencer.
The resulting video is emblematic of the studio’s signature style of content: a brief, fast-paced parable-like storyline that starts with a conflict to hook social-first viewers without patience for exposition or rising action, followed by a resolution that offers some sort of emotionally-charged moral lesson. It’s that type of content that has won the studio, which opened in 2021, more than 170 million followers and made it one of the largest creator-led media companies in the world. The studio works with around 2,200 actors a year, with a staff of around 125 and nine crews shooting simultaneously.
Now, the studio is adapting to a new era with co-developed programming — like Samsung TV Plus’ first original scripted series, which premiered last week — and a slate of 40 scripted microdramas with Fox Entertainment and a new podcast hosted by Dhar Mann. I visited the sets and interviewed Mann and the studio’s head of production Toni Gray to learn more about how they are adapting to working with traditional media companies….
The Creator Takeover: How creators flexed their power this week.
💰 Research commissioned by YouTube found creators added $110 billion to U.S. GDP in 2024
🤝 Accenture Song acquired Whalar
🪩 The NIL era is remaking prom
🎾 The emancipation of Morgan Riddle
🤖 Casey Neistat can't figure out YouTube's algorithm anymore
🏀 The viral riff about the Knicks that became an anthem
👉🏻 “Charlie bit my finger” makes British Film Institute archives
🧩 The Lego Bricks & Minifigs scandal, explained
The Platforms
Instagram now lets you rearrange feed posts
Adobe is backing a bill aimed at protecting visual artists and creators’ signature styles
Kalshi asked paid influencers to delete posts sowing doubts over LA mayoral election
How paid influencers hype Polymarket’s odds
The Group Chat: One more creator story I’m watching this week.
CREATORS AS STREAMERS: Independent tech journalist Laurie Segall’s Mostly Human Media and Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media released what they are calling the first investigative vertical docuseries built specifically for TikTok. The investigation into the anonymous man behind the “Mr. Deepfakes” platform, which shut down in 2025, borrows from true crime and social-first style storytelling. Hilton appears in the documentary as a survivor who has had over 100,000 sexually explicit deepfakes made of her, but also acted as the documentary’s distributor, hosting the 14-part series on her social media.
“I almost look at Paris Hilton as a streamer,” Segall told me in an interview. She said that she approached the documentary with the same editorial rigor as during her time at 60 Minutes, believing you can bring the same type of storytelling to social media but with the added benefit of direct two-way communication with the audience, which she said has brought out new stories of people who have been deepfaked. The first episode of the series has 6.2 million views on TikTok.
Close Friends: Content I sent my friends this week.
Where I went: Last week I attended the first Creator Row on Capitol Hill, where I learned from Color Class that I’m a “clear winter” color palette. I also met creators at TikTok’s Inside the Creator Economy event in DC, which brought out the city’s digital staffers on both sides of the aisle. (Side note: In a sign of how much things have changed in the Capitol since the US TikTok spinoff, all three members of Congress who spoke at the reception were Republicans). I sampled McDonald’s new boba drink at an AAPI creator event hosted by Ashley Yi and Sam Song Li (I’m waiting for them to bring over my fave childhood beverage Qoo, which you can only get at McDonald’s in Japan).
Where next: I’m busy planning for Cannes Lions (June 22-26) and a long weekend in Europe before I make my first trip to La Croisette. Tubefilter, Comscore, Whalar Group and Gospel Stats just released a helpful list of creators attending, UTA Creators and Claude are teasing an exclusive dinner with top talent on Wednesday and per my inbox every CMO on the planet is planning their trip and ready to talk about why creators are the future. I have a lot of big interviews lined up I’m excited to share with you all, and if you’ll be on the ground in person you can request an invite to the Post’s receptions here.
What I’m watching: some literal on the ground reporting, this read of DC culture, chic dog dye jobs, and terrifying bugs being found in wooden dishes.
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