‘The Chosen’ Exec Katherine Warnock On That & Roma Downey

A blond woman sits at a microphone. — *Katherine Warnock, ‘The Chosen’/Image: Kate O’Hare*

Last Friday, I caught up with Katherine Warnock, Vice President, Original Content, at the hit Gospels-based series The Chosen.

She’s responsible for overseeing production of non-show content, like Christmas specials and documentaries. That includes Jonathan & Jesus, the docuseries that recently premiered on Amazon Prime Video.

Click here to see my post about it, which includes a video interview with series star, and documentary subject, Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus on The Chosen.

Warnock’s Life Before The Chosen — and Roma Downey News

Before she came to The Chosen, Warnock’s jobs included teacher, missionary, and Senior Director of Content for Amazon MGM. There, she worked with producers/spouses Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (The Bible, A.D.: The Bible Continues, The Dovekeepers, Ben-Hur).

Warnock says of the couple:

They’re very, very dear to me. They’ve been very good to me through the years.

It was recently announced that Amazon Prime Video had acquired Downey’s faith-themed family drama The Baxters.

From Variety:

Amazon Prime Video has acquired the family drama series “The Baxters” starring Roma Downey and Ted McGinley. The faith-infused series is based on the bestselling novels by author Karen Kingsbury.

The series has been in the works since early 2018, when Downey announced plans to produce a series based on Kingsbury’s books for her LightWorkers Media streaming platform. A number of episodes were produced but have never aired on LightWorkers or any other outlet. The deal with Prime Video comes as Amazon has heightened its focus on faith-based, family-friendly and uplifting series and movies.

“With over 25 million fans of the Baxter series books we know audiences are going to love this family drama brought to life, and I am personally so excited to bring more inspirational content to Prime Video,” Downey said.

Says Warnock:

So that was during my heyday when I was at MGM still. We produced those three seasons of Baxters, and it’s finally launching. I’m so excited for Roma.

She fought hard. And it’s going to be a smash. It’s going to absolutely be a smash.

On the Price of Being a Christian in Hollywood

We then went on to discuss Warnock’s tenure as a Christian in Hollywood (she’s since moved out of Southern California), and now, her work with The Chosen.

You can catch all of that in the video embedded below, but here’s a taste.

On being a Christian in the entertainment industry:

I think people will often say, “Oh, you have an immense trust in God.” And I said, “Yes, absolutely.”

But more than that, obedience to Him is my life. And so I get to be His daughter, yes. But I also get to choose to serve Him with the entirety of my being.

So I never had a choice. I was a high-school teacher and a missionary, that was my chosen path. And He just kind of completely pivoted it and said, “No, I want you in Hollywood, and I want you to be there in obedience to me.”

And so I’ve just never had a choice, Kate. And so I sit thereM and I often say, not as a critique of Hollywood or a critique of anyone in particular, but I often say, “Hey, I intentionally chose not to play the Hollywood normal cadence of a career path by God’s choice. And I also chose to not…”

In this industry to thrive you do have to network or politically maneuver, and some people choose to do that in a healthy way, and others, in a toxic way.

And I chose to just do neither, because it’s just not who God made me to be. And so, I know I delayed my career by seven to 10 years.

And so, then Mark and Roma had eyes to see me and really elevated me, to their great credit.

And then The Chosen came along, and this is the first time I feel able to fully be expressed in how God made me in this weird, I have all this mainstream experience, but also I know the faith space incredibly well.

So I get to be a bridge, Kate, and that’s pretty extraordinary.

In the interview video below, I reference an interview I did with The Chosen executive producer Derral Eves, and here’s a link to that.