Tanya Lopez

At the start of 2015 Lifetime was the top cable destination in all key demos for women, with Lopez steering the ship. She’s overseen successful telecasts like the original movie “Whitney,” as well as miniseries “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe.” Lopez is proud of Lifetime’s new Broad Focus initiative, which provides women with more opportunities to write, develop, produce and direct content for the network. “We have upped our commitment,” she says.

Where are the biggest growth areas for women in cable?

For Lifetime, it has always been a priority to have women in front and behind the camera, and we have upped our commitment with our initiative Broad Focus to provide women with more opportunities to write, develop, produce and direct content for the network.  We have always been a leader in this area by creating a structure in which we can identify more opportunities for females, and we’re very proud of it.

What’s the most important aspect of mentoring?

There are many different ways of mentoring.  I love the aspect of encouraging young college graduates or soon-to-be graduates to explore as many different aspects of the creative business as they can.  Finding out what you don’t like is as important as finding out what you do like.  You may have to do that job for you don’t enjoy for a while, so learn from that experience.

Your favorite trick for unwinding?

I unwind by checking in with my family — kids, sister, husband, nieces and nephews.  Usually, they are not interested in what I’m doing so it gets me out of my head.