After 26 years in Chicago, Harpo Studios will be closing its doors for the final time as Media queen, Oprah Winfrey, opens her new OWN's new headquarters in West Hollywood.
The 61-year-old will be focussing her energy on operations in Los Angeles as she continues to pursue interests outside of the executive suite, including a cadre of film and stage projects.
The move means that Winfrey and her key executives will now stop the back-and-forth routine they've been balancing for nearly half a decade as the bulk of their business is based in Hollywood.
The mogul reveals plans for international speaking engagements, more scripted shows and why she's passing on Broadway production ' 'night, Mother.'
While running OWN will remain a primary focus for Winfrey going forward, she has and will continue to pursue interests outside of the executive suite, too, including a cadre of film projects (she acted in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Selma, which she also produced) and this past fall’s eight-city "Oprah'sThe Life You Want" arena tour.
More recently, Winfrey announced that she'd be moving in front of the camera at her eponymous network, with a recurring role in Queen Sugar, from Selma’s Ava DuVernay. “That’s been my goal,” she says of making her OWN acting debut, calling the drama opportunity a “seminal moment.”
She did acknowledge a mix of excitement and nostalgia. "Chicago has been everything for me. I've spent more hours in this building than I have any other building on Earth. ... We were here when there was nothing but hoes and rats on the street, and now it's one of the hottest neighborhoods [in Chicago]," she said. "The time had come to downsize this part of the business and to move forward.
It will be sad to say goodbye, but I look ahead with such a knowing that what the future holds is even more than I can see."
The news of the move, which Oprah delivered in person to over 200 Harpo staff, comes two months after her burgeoning cable network moved into the new space in West Hollywood.
