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It isn’t lost on Max Executive Vice President of Original Programming Joey Chavez as to the access and breaks he’s been given in the entertainment industry since the age of seventeen. The Angeleno grew up with a strong appetite for movies and television, and he credits the large amount of time he spent at his grandparents’ house surrounded by their shelves of movies, music, books, and art.
Chavez saw the power of creativity, and he wanted in. While he grew up just blocks from one of the biggest studios in town—Sony Pictures Entertainment—he didn’t know how to “break in” to the business. He just knew he wanted to study film and television. So, he applied to the University of Southern California (USC)’s film school, not knowing how he would pay for it or what it could lead to.
The most pivotal point on his path was that his USC application ended up in the hands of Warner Bros. as part of a program the studio had to connect with and train young college students. He was thrown into a pool of applicants competing for a full-ride scholarship. Chavez became the sole candidate selected for USC, along with one University of California, Los Angeles applicant.
Included in the award packet was one stipulation: Chavez would intern throughout his undergraduate career at Warner Bros., every single semester. Not a bad price to pay, considering that thousands of students vie for internship opportunities in Hollywood every year.
“With every writer or every executive that I work with, I often think of, how do I win them over in terms of trust and being a creative and business partner for them, so that we build that longevity.”
Joey Chavez
“At that point, I didn’t know what the specific jobs were, so the key for everything for me was to be placed in a new environment each semester where I could learn from executives and continue to expand my network,” Chavez recalls.
Chavez didn’t just observe; he took notes. He listened along the way and took every piece of advice he was given in order to climb up the ladder. Looking back, he notes that he didn’t fully understand the magnitude of earning an instant internship on the WB lot, meeting executives, rolling up his sleeves, and learning the craft.
He looks back fondly on the one year where his internship was to work alongside writers in the writer’s program. Chavez credits that internship with giving him the necessary tools he needed to start carving out what would be his first gig after graduation as an apprentice at the WB Network (now the CW Network). This role allowed him to learn the tricks of the trade, which included admin duties along with being able to learn how to talk and work with a writer—and most importantly, how to give and take a note. That’s not as easy as it sounds; just ask any creative in the business.
It takes a certain skill set and a set of chops to deliver on point, and Chavez has that special talent.
At one point during his apprenticeship, a high-ranking executive, who happened to be a queer woman of color, wanted to get his point of view on a littleshow they had at the time: Charmed (an LGBTQ+ fan favorite). “She called me into her office one day and put it bluntly: ‘You’re not writing a college paper here, Joey. I want to know what you really think about this script,’” he recalls. “She could have just taken my assessment from the beginning and sent me on my way, but instead she wanted to challenge me, and have me work on my own style.”
He appreciates these early opportunities where he could work with different executives in their worlds of programming and development and take notice of their individual styles and how they interfaced with writers. All things considered, it is still crucial to have a POV and develop that knack for communicating with colleagues both internally and externally.
“With every writer or every executive that I work with, I often think of, how do I win them over in terms of trust and being a creative and business partner for them, so that we build that longevity,” he explains.
Chavez points out that daily communication with all departments is a key element when shaping a series and that communicating with writers and his higher-ups are just a piece of the puzzle. Besides being the main point of contact, he is likely to engage with marketing, casting, research, etc.
“I will never feel like there are enough LGBTQ+ offerings on any platform. We can always have more. I think it is just important that we get it right.”
Joey Chavez
His most recent project currently on Max’s slate is The Penguin, which dropped in September 2024 and dives deeper into the Batman franchise with one of the caped crusader’s biggest foes. Chavez points out that when they began developing Penguin (played by Colin Farrell) as the main character, the question of identity and leading a dual life come into play similar to Batman. This is something that all audiences—particularly the LGBTQ+ audience—knows a thing or two about. Inclusion at its finest.
Max is a platform known for its inclusive offerings. Would you expect anything less from an outlet that kicked off its programming in 2020 with Legendary and now includes Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and The Sex Lives of College Girls?
“I will never feel like there are enough LGBTQ+ offerings on any platform,” Chavez says. “We can always have more. I think it is just important that we get it right.”
Getting it right seems to be a major factor in Chavez’s career trajectory. He is quick to mention several executives by name who believed in him when recognizing instances in the past where he was elevated either by position or even brought into conversations to hear his opinions. Now, it is Chavez who has the power to select who should take these key positions, whether on his own team or when working on a specific intellectual property such as The Penguin—where he was able to bring in Latina creator Lauren LeFranc as its showrunner.
While the forty-year-old Chavez is proud of his journey and that he can contribute to the visibility of gay Latinos in the industry, it is the simple things in life where he really wants to get right—and that is how he spends his downtime. Whether it is spending time with his two dogs (Javi and Jack Lemmon), visiting a museum, or simply reading a book (nonfiction is his current favorite), Chavez knows that there is a calming beauty in these non-industry moments when nothing is expected from him that he can find when he is not working. For him, that is all he needs.
