logo
BuzzFeed's Tasty Names Mike Aho As Branded Entertainment Lead

BuzzFeed's Tasty Names Mike Aho As Branded Entertainment Lead

Buzz Feed4 hours ago

Los Angeles, CA – June 20, 2025 — BuzzFeed's Tasty, the largest food brand on the internet, today announces Mike Aho as its Branded Entertainment Lead, where he will oversee the development and production of branded, longform series for the Tasty YouTube channel and beyond.
In this strategic role, Aho is tasked with building a high-impact slate of premium, unscripted originals for Tasty that combine top brands, the most dynamic content creators, and A-list talent to create cinematic, story-driven shows at the intersection of food, travel, and lifestyle. These projects are designed to expand Tasty's digital footprint, and compete for industry accolades utilizing Aho's acclaimed experience.
An Emmy-nominated producer and innovative content creator, Aho's career spans both traditional television and digital-first platforms. Prior to joining Tasty, Aho served as the Head of Streaming for Tastemade, transforming their longform TV shows into premium branded series. At Tastemade, Aho led the creative production of award-winning series like Street Somm and Worth the Hype, and launched Deliciously Entertaining, Pinterest's first-ever streaming TV show. His credits also include producing for iconic franchises such as American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance at Core Media, co-creating breakout hits like Dance Moms (with Bryan Stinson) for Collins Avenue, and launching wildlife-adventure series like Vet Gone Wild for Endemol Shine and A Wild Ride with Tuf Cooper for Apparatus, currently streaming on Roku.
Prior to joining Tasty, Aho held senior unscripted roles at leading production companies including Collins Avenue, Shine, Core Media, and Tastemade, where he specialized in developing talent-led formats that successfully bridged brand integration and premium storytelling.
'We're thrilled to have Mike step into this new role to partner with Jake Frankenfield and our branded team to push the boundaries of innovative storytelling and lead Tasty's branded, longform content creation into the future,' said Richard Alan Reid, President of BuzzFeed Studios. 'Mike brings a bold vision for unscripted series and culturally relevant programming that also offers brands a chance to be part of something truly meaningful and lasting.'
'I'm excited to harness Tasty's connection to its passionate global community of food lovers to collaborate with brands, talent, and innovators,' said Mike Aho, Branded Entertainment Lead for Tasty 'Our aim is to create cinematic, culturally relevant series that feel less like traditional branded content and more like must-watch entertainment — stories that inspire, bring people together, and celebrate food in a way that resonates with our growing, food-obsessed audience.'
With Aho combining creative and commercial, Tasty is poised to redefine what longform unscripted looks like in the digital age.
About Tasty
Launched in 2015, Tasty is a community for home cooks who play with their food. As the internet's most-viewed food brand and largest digital food community, Tasty inspires a global community of food lovers to watch, engage, buy and create.
About BuzzFeed, Inc.
BuzzFeed, Inc. is home to the best of the Internet. Across pop culture, entertainment, shopping, food and news, our brands drive conversation and inspire what audiences watch, read, and buy now – and into the future. Born on the Internet in 2006, BuzzFeed is committed to making it better: providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content on the Internet more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring our audience to live better lives.
Press Contact:

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Kylie Jenner has nothing to hide. Keeping up with the star's candid new social media vibe.
Kylie Jenner has nothing to hide. Keeping up with the star's candid new social media vibe.

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Kylie Jenner has nothing to hide. Keeping up with the star's candid new social media vibe.

Anyone who has followed the Kardashian-Jenners (me!) over the last two decades knows there is a shift happening in a corner of the internet with Kylie Jenner. For years, the Kardashian-Jenners have mastered the art of controlled exposure, offering just enough of their lives to draw fans in on social media, fuel headlines and promote their ever-growing businesses. Thanks to Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which aired on E! from 2007 to 2021, and now The Kardashians on Hulu, the family continues to build an empire on both illusion and owning their drama. They've tackled everything from feuds, divorces and yes, even physical fights on camera without losing their fan base. It's a tricky line to walk: How much of your private life is the public entitled to know? With Kylie, who literally grew up in the spotlight, it's been a delicate balance, and we've seen various iterations. Her pregnancy with daughter Stormi was hidden behind walls of secrecy and YouTube montages. Then there was her "King Kylie" Vine era in 2014, a time marked by colorful hair and real interaction with fans. She's currently in billionaire beauty mommy mogul status, but through them all, she was always the family member who seemed the most real to viewers. The KarJenner image on social media has typically been about perfect camera angles, aesthetically pleasing pictures and post-production polish so smooth you just had to buy whatever product a sister is selling. In 2015, it was Kylie's Lip Kits that broke the internet. Yet, she also owned up that her plumper pout wasn't all natural when she said she had 'temporary lip fillers' on her reality show that same year. Lately, Kylie's online presence has become less about aspirational perfection and more about controlled relatability. Enter that TikTok comment. One reply on TikTok was all it took to usher in a new era for the family's youngest billionaire: "445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!! silicone!!! garth fisher!!! hope this helps lol.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Comments By Celebs (@commentsbycelebs) The message was in response to beauty influencer Rachel Leary's TikTok begging for the details of Kylie's "perfect, natural looking boob job ever." The unfiltered response is notable, as the famous family is particularly tight-lipped about confirming or denying any cosmetic procedures they've had done, let alone in real detail. Kylie was applauded by some on social media after sharing details of her breast augmentation by people crediting her for helping demystify beauty norms. That's rare for celebrities. She's also waded in these waters before. In 2022, the 27-year-old was cheered for 'normalizing' postpartum bodies. It's something she's also discussed on The Kardashians. The candid comment online wasn't a one-off. The 27-year-old followed that up days later by posting a hair tutorial for her "biggest" hair hack, revealing to fans how she gets her signature curly blowout, and also sharing a look at her morning routine. Call it the TikTok comment that cracked the filter, but it opened the door to the glossy illusion that's long surrounded the family's media empire — a narrative shaped by Kris Jenner and meticulously maintained through reinvention and camera-ready control. Now, in the age of Gen Z's demand for 'realness,' Kylie knows: Perfection is out online. Whether it's a business strategy or something more, one thing is certain: we are entering a new phase of Kardashian. And while Kylie's letting her (fourth) wall down, she's not destroying her family's carefully constructed image either — she's cracking open a window and letting just enough light in. The Kardashians stars are experts in both their family and personal brands, having been at the forefront of the digital age for the last two decades. Keeping Up With the Kardashians first aired in 2007. Instagram launched three years later, and the family was brilliant when it came to utilizing social media. They even had celebrity blogs before celebrity blogs were a thing! They've made a career out of being first — first to shape the influencer economy, first to turn personal branding into big business. They may not have been the first to blur the line between reality TV and real life — let's give the Osbournes some credit — but no one can argue they've set the gold standard. Kim helped make contouring a must for makeup application, Kylie turned lip kits into a billion-dollar beauty brand, and Kendall helped redefine what it means to be a supermodel in the modern era. They launched mobile apps and emoji keyboards. They have major footprints in the beauty, liquor and fashion industries. Love them or roll your eyes, they've remained famous and successful for nearly 20 years for shape-shifting with the culture. Kylie's latest social media rebrand reflects that. At 393 million followers, Jenner is the fifth most-followed person on Instagram. She's the most-followed person in her famous family on Instagram and TikTok. You don't get that many people wanting to stay up to date on your life without adapting to online trends. "Kylie has historically been the Kardashian-Jenner sibling who shared the most snippets of her life with her fans, including her iconic 'King Kylie' era when she created videos on Vine in 2014," Jenna Guarneri, author of You Need PR, tells Yahoo Entertainment. "Now, Kylie tapping back into her more authentic side, and amplifying it across her socials, is a strategic move to help her better connect with her Gen Z audience." Kylie is back to doing vlogs and weighing in on viral trends. Last year, she hooked fans with some King Kylie nostalgia when she stepped out with teal hair — then was hilariously candid about why she did it, simply telling Elle she had a 'free day.' While she said the King Kylie era 'will always be a part of who I am,' she clarified, 'it'll never be what it was when I was younger. I probably would never wear lash extensions and thick eyebrows. There are just certain trends that I've grown out of.' On Monday, Kylie shared a TikTok of 7-year-old daughter Stormi's reaction to that time in her life. She's leaning into more unfiltered moments, like one from a recent vacation with sister Kendall on a "drunk beach walk' because polished posts are out, authenticity is in. "Kylie's operating in a cultural moment where audiences don't just expect polish; they want personality, even contradiction," Elise Riley, CEO and founder of marketing and creative agency My Global Presence, tells Yahoo Entertainment. "A generation ago, perfection was the product. Today, what sells is proximity. Kylie isn't abandoning the family's image strategy; she's modifying it to stay in step with how influence now works. And she's doing so with enough restraint to keep the mystique intact." But was that really Jenner who posted the details of her breast augmentation? Or did she give the green light to someone on her social media and branding team to hit send? It doesn't matter, because even if it was scripted, it didn't seem like it was. "Kylie has grown up under public scrutiny, and in that process, she's developed a precise understanding of timing and tone," Riley adds. "What she's offering now… it's permission for the audience to feel like they're seeing past the velvet rope. The allure hasn't changed, but the access point has. People don't need their celebrities to be 'just like them,' but they do want to feel like they're being let in on something that wasn't completely pre-cleared." Even Jenner's courtside appearances at New York Knicks games during the NBA playoffs with boyfriend Timothée Chalamet felt less like a PR stunt and more like genuine glimpses into her private life. It inspired another free-spirited post in which she reshared a clip from Sex and the City where Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones tells Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw she's not getting laid unless the Knicks win. "This was just another instance of Kylie showing her fans the genuine, fun side of her personality. Authenticity for influencers is a hot topic with Gen Z: They want to see the person behind the brand and feel a sense of human connection," Guarneri, who is also founder and CEO of JMG Public Relations, says. Kylie's shift toward more authentic content may be strategic, but it reflects and reinforces a broader generational move toward transparency in public figures. Still, don't anticipate much of a change for her family members. "While it is unlikely that the rest of the family will be as candid as Kylie has recently been, it is possible that we may see more personal testimonials and behind-the-scenes content from the rest of the family outside of The Kardashians show — especially if Kylie's transparency continues to make for positive fan interactions and headlines," Guarneri says. Not every single video or post has to be a confession. There's not a whole lot about the Kardashians that is relatable, and fans have never seemed to care. We even love them for it! Kylie seems to be capitalizing on a different kind of parasocial relationship, though, one that rewards vulnerability even in extreme wealth and fame. "Kylie understands that people aren't expecting her to renounce her privilege. What they're responding to is a shift in tone, a kind of emotional availability that doesn't feel performative," Riley says. "She's not trying to be a peer; she's offering just enough realness to sustain engagement. That's the evolution: not a dismantling of the pedestal, but a softening of the distance." Maybe this is the new Kardashian currency: not perfection, but proximity. How long this chapter lasts is anyone's guess, but Kylie is the one rewriting the rulebook in real time.

What we know about 'The Bear' ahead of season 4 premiere

time3 hours ago

What we know about 'The Bear' ahead of season 4 premiere

The heat is back in the kitchen for the intense fourth season of "The Bear," as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto and the culinary cast of characters work to chase perfection for their Chicago fine dining restaurant. What to expect on new season of 'The Bear' In the official trailer that dropped last month, Carmy, played by Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White, says in a voiceover, "People go to restaurants to be taken care of, to relax, to not have to think about anything else for a minute." He paces slowly into the kitchen and turns the lights on before palpable pressure from his Uncle Jimmy builds, reminding him he is up against a ticking clock. "It's hard and it's brutal, and that's what makes it special," Carmy says later over a montage of a perfectly plated dish. Liza Colón-Zayas, who won her first Emmy Award last year for her portrayal of chef Tina, joined "Good Morning America" on Monday and said her character will continue to evolve in the new season. "Reckoning," Colón-Zayas said when asked what we can expect from the new episodes. "Everyone -- individually and as the Bear fam -- is gonna have some major reckoning, accountability, and stress. We kind of do that really well. I think people are gonna get more of what they're addicted to." Tina's transformation was a standout arc in season 3, as viewers got a glimpse of her backstory and watched her step into a larger role in the kitchen. This season, Colón-Zayas told "GMA" that journey deepens. "She's come through the other side and is really invested in raising her game and bringing everybody with her. We'll see her take on challenges, face her weaknesses and lean into her courage," she said. Colón-Zayas said she can relate to nearly every part of Tina's story. "All of it. It's like my life, except in a kitchen," she said. "I know what it feels like to struggle, to feel like your time is up, or that you're no longer needed. To have this reinvention and these blessings? I feel that -- just like Tina." As fans get ready for another high-octane season, Colón-Zayas described her character's relationship with Carmy as "loving" and "respectful," then laughed, adding, "Every now and then I gotta give him a thank-you." The full ensemble cast returns for season 4 with Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie, Abby Elliott as Sugar, Lionel Boyce as Marcus, Matty Matheson as Neil, and Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Carmy's mom Donna. Behind the scenes, showrunners Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo continue to guide the series, alongside culinary producer chef Courtney Storer. Edebiri and Boyce both co-wrote an episode this time around. When does The Bear season 4 air? All 10 episodes will be streaming Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET via FX on Hulu, as well as Hulu on Disney+ globally.

'Futurama' actor John DiMaggio asks $1.99M for LA home
'Futurama' actor John DiMaggio asks $1.99M for LA home

New York Post

time4 hours ago

  • New York Post

'Futurama' actor John DiMaggio asks $1.99M for LA home

After more than a decade tucked into a secluded corner of the Studio City hills, Emmy-nominated voice actor John DiMaggio and actress Kate Miller are saying goodbye to their Los Angeles home, The Post has learned. A striking 1979 modernist residence designed by architect John Bleser, the dwelling is now listed for $1.99 million. Best known for voicing Bender in the culty cartoon 'Futurama,' DiMaggio called the move 'bittersweet,' adding, 'It's where we've been for a while.' Advertisement 13 Emmy-nominated voice actor John DiMaggio — best known as the voice of Bender in 'Futurama' — and his wife, stage and screen actress Kate Miller, have listed their architectural hillside retreat in Los Angeles for $1.99 million. David Fitzgerald 13 A still from Season 12 of 'Futurama,' which aired on Sept. 2, 2024. ©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection The couple, both native New Yorkers, moved into the house as a starter home, but it became much more than that. Advertisement 'We liked it so much. We ended up there for 14 years,' Miller said. 'A comfort zone is a wonderful place, but nothing ever grows there.' Set against the Verdugo Mountains, the three-story hillside dwelling offers sweeping valley views, open-concept interiors, a regenerating brook and decks. Bleser's Bauhaus-inspired vision remains intact, with carefully preserved original detailing and recent modern updates. 13 John DiMaggio with a figure of his Bender character. WireImage 13 The entryway. David Fitzgerald Advertisement Inside, the couple outfitted the space with work and play in mind. 'During COVID, I recorded a lot of things from home, and it was more of a studio slash office, in the house,' DiMaggio said. 'There's great work space in the house.' A life-sized replica of Bender — gifted to DiMaggio by the creators of 'Futurama' — currently stands watch inside the studio, a physical reminder of the show's long legacy. 'That's something that I got from 'Futurama' a long time ago that only a couple of people have gotten,' DiMaggio said. Advertisement 13 Designed by modernist architect John Bleser in 1979, the three-story home is a private sanctuary perched above the city with sweeping views of the Verdugo Mountains. David Fitzgerald 13 The office, which has been used as DiMaggio's studio to record. David Fitzgerald Outside, the property is a haven for wildlife — frequent visits from deer, owls and hawks have added to its peaceful, woodsy charm. 'It's a beautiful special place up there in the hills. And it's a really unique architectural piece of property,' Miller added. Originally designed with entertainers and creatives in mind, the roughly 3,000-square-foot residence includes a dramatic glass conservatory with double-height windows, two levels of entertaining space, and a private third-story retreat with bedrooms and outdoor lounge areas. 13 The home occupies roughly 3,000 square feet. David Fitzgerald 13 John DiMaggio and Kate Miller. Getty Images for STARZ The home's custom brook feature, lush landscaping and privacy fencing enhance its appeal, while its walkability to Ventura Boulevard and sushi favorites like Avi Cue and KazuNori add urban convenience. Advertisement Adara Salim of the Beverly Hills Estates holds the listing. DiMaggio's on-camera appearances span everything from 'Better Call Saul,' 'Modern Family' and 'Interview with the Vampire,' to voice work in 'Zootopia,' 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' 'Samurai Jack' and 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie.' 13 A lovely glass conservatory. David Fitzgerald 13 The living space. David Fitzgerald Advertisement 13 The home offers lush landscaping. David Fitzgerald Miller, a veteran of both stage and screen, has appeared in everything from 'Blue Bloods' and 'Hightown' to Broadway productions with Carol Burnett and Michael Sheen. Her voice roles include 'Sealab 2021,' 'Frisky Dingo' and major video games like 'God of War: Ragnarök.' The couple began dating in 2011. They also recently went into contract on their Palm Springs home, which they've owned for 11 years. These days, they're spending summers in the Hamptons and continue to maintain a home in Manhattan's West Village. Advertisement 13 One of three bedrooms. David Fitzgerald 13 An ensuite bathroom. David Fitzgerald 'John was born in New York and raised in Jersey, so we're East Coast people,' Miller said. Still, their hillside LA home holds a special place as they are still figuring out where they will permanently settle. Advertisement 'It's the house we bought when we first got married,' DiMaggio said. 'So there's a lot of nostalgia attached to it.' As for the life-sized Bender statue that currently resides in DiMaggio's studio? Miller offered one final note — with a laugh — to her husband: 'It will not come in the [new] house.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store