Madeline Randolph

Madeline Randolph began her career in entertainment working in children’s television at the Wrather Corporation in Beverly Hills (“Lassie” series, children’s programming at the Disney studios, Disneyland Hotel) while attending college. However, she was approached by an executive at A&M Records and decided to become an intern at A&M Records while attending UCLA. She graduated from her internship and was offered a position in the Promotion Department. It was a great era of music where she had the opportunity to work with the Police, Styx, Supertramp, The Brothers Johnson, LTD, Gino Vannelli, Atlantic Starr, Rita Coolidge, Chuck Mangione, Bryan Adams, Brenda Russell, Seawind, George Benson, .38 Special and Quincy Jones. She assisted in creating and setting up the Special Projects Division. Her ability to mainstream this department, get results and create reports for the national staff caught the attention of many executives, including David Kershenbaum, Jordan Harris, Jeff Ayeroff, Harold Childs, Michael Stokes, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. When they created the Special Projects Division in the Artist and Repertoire (A&R) department, they approached her for the position of national coordinator.

The relationships she cultivated with the studio, the administration departments, unions and most importantly, the talent, quickly caught the attention of Quincy Jones. Madeline was then approached by his office to coordinate several projects for his production company. Her ability to organize chaos, circulate reports, keep everyone on schedule and communicate simultaneously, made her a necessary factor on all projects spearheaded by Quincy Jones Productions. She was appointed Executive Vice President of Operations, where she was the integral constituent in coordinating, amongst many other projects, the “Thriller” album for Michael Jackson, the “We Are The World” recording, and the film “The Color Purple”. In addition, she was the co-music supervisor, working with Tom Bahler, on the soundtrack album. Madeline provided creative assistance and supervision to every soundtrack Quincy Jones was either involved or consulted on including “E.T. with Michael Jackson”, “Dune” and “The Slugger’s Wife”, as well as administrating the albums for Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer, Lena Horne, James Ingram, Patti Austin, Ernie Watts and many others. She cultivated relationships with movie and music head brass such as Steve Ross, Mo Ostin, Michael Ostin, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer-Sager, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Sidney Poitier, Clarence Avant, Terry Semel, Phil Ramone, Arif Mardin, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Miles Davis, Eddie Murphy, Marlon Brando, Arnold Schwarzeneger, Maria Shriver, Luther Vandross, Frank Sinatra, Cary and Mrs. Grant, Dodi Fayed, Caroline Kennedy and the list goes on.

At that time, Quincy Jones Productions launched it’s television/film department, where she coordinated the alliances of several up and coming film directors/writers, including Spike Lee, Robert Townsend, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Doug McHenry, George Jackson, Helena Head and Jon Peters/Peter Guber. During this time, she expanded her work in the community and became a member of the NAACP, BESLA, WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT, MINORITY WOMEN’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, AAF and was honored by the City of Los Angeles for her work with school children.

Madeline, seeking another opportunity and after extensive recruiting efforts by Epic Records, accepted the position of West Coast Director of A&R. Again, she worked with Michael Jackson as well as Gloria Estefan, Teena Marie, Luther Vandross, Tease, Sly Stone, producer Willie Mitchell and she scouted and signed new talent. While she promoted and sustained the development of the producers and artists at Epic, she caught the attention of Irving Azoff, Jheryl Busby and Louil Silas, Jr. In less than a year, she was offered a position at MCA/Universal Records as National Director of A&R. During her tenure, where she was promoted to Vice President of A&R, she scouted and signed talent, fostered the development of the production team, helped guide and contribute to the soundtracks for the following films…”Beverly Hills Cop III”, “Juice”, “Dangerous Minds”, “Tales From The Hood”, “Eve’s Bayou”, “Bulletproof”, “Hoodlum” and others, in addition to serving as Executive Producer for artists Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Immature, Chante Moore, Rahsaan Patterson, Stephanie Mills, Ralph Tresvant, K-Ci and JoJo, Bobby Brown, New Edition, Jody Watley, Brandy, Mary J. Blige and Guy.

After a great run at MCA/Universal, Madeline decided it was time to initiate her own film and music production company. She began a partnership with Nancy Taylor (Executive Vice President/Deputy General Counsel for Clive Davis/BMG Distribution) and Steven Taylor (renowned film/TV composer). They supervised several films and TV movies, however, the offers came through from several directors and writers, because of their music/legal acumen, to produce films.

Her production acumen expanded to include working as President of The Ultimate Group, which included working on pilots for television that included “Barrett” for UPN, “The OZ” for the WB channel and “Black and White” for Paramount, as well as setting up the film “You Got Served”. Madeline continued her work with music by constructing the careers of B2K, Jhene and Marques Houston with New Line Records and New Line Films. While working on all the afore-mentioned projects she initiated her production company with her business partner Aileen Randolph. Their projects include several television series and film projects. In addition, they run a full-scale entertainment consulting company that supports record companies and film entities alike.

Madeline and her business partner, Aileen Randolph, have worked with non-profit organizations for the last 10 years. They are extremely instrumental in creating alliances between the entertainment business and worthy undertakings that support children, education and healthcare. They have worked with schools, private organizations, foster care organizations, at-risk youth groups, music/arts schools and foundations, African arts and film foundations, youth health care foundations and they are currently working with a healthcare foundation to provide therapy for the mentally challenged and displaced foster care children in the Katrina/Gulf Coast region.