Gelsomina Picariello

Director of Media Programming and Development, Kansas City Chiefs + Foolish Club Studios

 

Gelsomina Picariello enters her fourth season with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025 and currently serves as the organization’s Director of Programming, working directly with the club’s Chief Media and Marketing Officer to lead the development and execution of media and creative-led growth strategies. 

 

In February 2025, she was part of the team that launched Foolish Club Studios, a new studio venture from the leadership of the Chiefs focused on developing original scripted and unscripted programming.  Picariello has been instrumental in the studio’s first production, the upcoming ESPN Original Series on the Kansas City Chiefs, produced by Words + Pictures in association with Skydance Sports, NFL Films, 2PM Productions, and Foolish Club Studios.  The six-episode docuseries is expected to premiere later this year on ESPN and Disney+ and will explore the franchise’s indelible and distinctive place in the NFL’s landscape for over more than six decades of history while offering an exclusive, revealing chronicle of the team’s extraordinary 2024 season.

 

The formation of the studio followed the success of the Chief’s Hallmark Channel collaboration Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story – the number one cable movie of 2024 – along with viral online hits like the holiday Claymation short A Kingdom Christmas Story: Hail Merry (nearly one million views), both part of  Picariello’s purview.

  

A national sports Emmy award winner, Picariello has more than 13 years of experience across the sports, media, and entertainment landscape. She started her career with the Walt Disney Company at ABC Sports and ESPN, working across multiple sports properties, including ESPN international, as well as the network’s tennis portfolio (the U.S. Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon).  

 

Since joining the Chiefs in January 2022, she has helped launch numerous programs and campaigns with a focus on driving audience growth and loyalty. In 2023, she was part of the group that created the team’s “World’s Largest Tailgate” original program to celebrate the return of the NFL season, which was nominated for the PGA Innovation Award by the Producers Guild of America. 

 

She is a former mentee of Sports Business Journal’s (SBJ) Game Changers program, where Game Changer honorees mentor women in the early stages of their sports careers. She was also selected to the NFL’s Mid-Career Executive Education Program at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 2025. 

 

A native of Weehawken, N.J., Picariello holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Montclair State University and a master’s in business strategy and branding from School of Visual Arts (SVA). 

 

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