EXCLUSIVE: Sam Esmail has made two key hires for his Esmail Corp. The company, run by Esmail and Chad Hamilton, has tapped Sam Shafaghi as Creative Executive in film and Natalie Domengeaux as Creative Executive in television.
Shafaghi, a graduate of the AFI Conservatory’s producing program, joined the company as an intern in 2019 when they first expanded into features. He is currently working on Esmail Corp productions such as Famous, the A24 dark comedy thriller starring Zac Efron, and the upcoming South Korea-set thriller The Hole. Shafaghi reports to Nick Krishnamurthy, the company’s Senior Vice President of Features.
Domengeaux joins Esmail Corp after working as a coordinator at Drew Goddard’s production company, Goddard Textiles. She reports to Sarah Matte, Senior Vice President of Television. Domengeaux is working on the company’s upcoming adaptation of Lee Samantha Chang’s critically acclaimed novel The Family Chao, among other projects on the television slate. Domengeaux, a USC alum, began her career as an assistant at CAA.
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Esmail Corp has produced series such as Amazon’s Homecoming, USA Network’s Mr. Robot and Briarpatch as well as Starz’s Gaslit and Peacock’s The Resort and Angelyne, starring and produced by Emmy Rossum. The company is under an overall television deal with UCP.
In features, Esmail most recently wrote, directed, and produced the 2023 Netflix movie Leave The World Behind, now the fifth most-watched English-language film on the platform.
“Natalie and Sam are two of the brightest young executives in their respective fields,” said Esmail. “They bring an incredible tenacity, amazing taste, and great relationships within the genre space that will help take our company to the next level.”