Disney Promotes Melissa Stone to SVP of Publicity, Placing Global PR Strategy Across All Studio Labels in Her Hands
The Walt Disney Studios has promoted Melissa Stone to Senior Vice President of Publicity, handing her the global PR strategy for every production label under the Disney umbrella — Disney Live Action, Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios — plus the Disney+ streaming service (Deadline).
Stone moves up from Vice President of Publicity and will report to Martha Morrison, President of Studios Marketing at The Walt Disney Studios. Morrison welcomed the promotion in a statement praising Stone's two decades of publicity experience and her media relationships (Deadline).
The new role is expansive. Publicity — the craft of managing how films are presented to press and audiences before release — sits at the centre of any studio's campaign. Stone now oversees that function for the labels responsible for some of the highest-grossing franchises in cinema, from Marvel's superhero blockbusters to Lucasfilm's Star Wars universe.
Stone brings more than 20 years of publicity experience to the job, including 14 years spanning Fox and Disney. That timeline tracks the 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, which folded the Fox film operation — rebranded as 20th Century Studios — into the parent company. Stone's career bridges both sides of that deal.
Her campaign credits read like a studio's highlight reel. She worked on Avatar: The Way of Water, the 2022 sequel that grossed over $2.3 billion worldwide; the 2025 hit Lilo & Stitch; The Little Mermaid; Mufasa; and the Planet of the Apes franchise. Her credits also include Ford v Ferrari, West Side Story, The Martian, the horror title Barbarian, and Lucasfilm's Andor series on Disney+ (Deadline).
Stone's promotion is the second senior publicity-side move at Disney's film studio this year. In March, the studio elevated Erin Barrier from Vice President to Senior Vice President of Communications, a parallel role on the corporate communications side (Deadline; Variety).
For audiences, the practical effect is invisible — but real. The person shaping how a film's story reaches magazines, talk shows and social feeds in the weeks before a premiere now has a single, senior voice across the widest film portfolio in the industry. Stone's campaigns have already been the ones that turned Avatar sequels and live-action remakes into cultural events. The promotion gives her the same authority for every title Disney puts on a screen.
