Rising Stars: Meet Kellie Whitton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kellie Whitton.

Hi Kellie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a Midwestern girl at heart, always fascinated by performing, movies and Hollywood glamour. I’d studied broadcast journalism and was a weekend anchor at a small NBC affiliate before moving to Los Angeles. The big time.

My first job was at a PR agency Rogers & Cowan, I then moved in-house for one of their clients, and then covered someone’s maternity leave at Village Roadshow Pictures which turned into an ongoing job as a VP of Marketing and Publicity. I joined after they’d made their third film–one of those initial 3 movies with Warner Bros. was “The Matrix”.

I worked for Village Roadshow Pictures, in partnership with Warner Bros. and other Hollywood studios for 7 years until a major leadership change happened–which led to half of the company leaving including my boss and mentor. As my husband said at the time–I’d always talked about the things I’d wanted to do but never did them. Now was the time.

I shot two television pilots, my husband and I made a movie with Kevin Hart in a cameo role, I consulted for Warner Bros., managed the World Premiere of “The Hobbit” in New Zealand, started my own marketing agency with a partner in the UK and traveled the world including spending a few months in Italy learning how to speak Italian (my maiden name is Maltagliati). It was an incredible time; not with financial security (although I did fine) but with purpose and joy.

My husband and I were together for 13 years when we got pregnant and married in Italy in 2014. Motherhood was challenging, especially when I took a job back inside Warner Bros. for the added security with our growing family. My parents moved to Los Angeles from St. Louis to help but I was floundering. Being a mom, supporting our family, managing my parents, I had a hard time finding myself or even my husband during those first few years. And then COVID hit. Four weeks later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I worked on learning as much as I could about my cancer, in between intense anxiety and fear as my children were only 2 and 5, and started a company called CaraKit that made useful care package gifts for women in treatment. Reading the note someone sent with our first order solidified my resolve–these gifts were needed. But going back into work after treatment, this was my third job on top of being a mom, wife, daughter and friend. It was a learning, but it was also too much.

Four years after my initial cancer diagnosis, without any signs of cancer after treatment, I got dizzy in a Starbucks parking lot and they found 4 tumors in my brain. The breast cancer had moved. It was time to slow down.

Now I’m a mom, wife, daughter and friend above all of my ambition and qualifications. I focus on my sons’ classmates, their parents, our community. I take walks in the dog park, I know what we’re making for dinner, what my kids want and need and love, what my husband is reading that day. I closed my marketing agency, I am on medical leave from Warner Bros., I have beautiful partners who help manage CaraKit, and I’m even done some cross-stitch (if I wasn’t doing it I’d be making fun of it, I promise).

I know I have much more story to go but my perspective of achievement has changed. Not in my ability to achieve what I believe is important, but in my desire to achieve things that will make me feel important in the world. Because the only world I am worried about now is the one with my family, friends and community at its center.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Cancer is always a struggle. It’s happening to more of us every day. It’s hard, painful, emotionally exhausting and tiring. But it can also be enlightening, rejuvenating, inspiring and educational as you move through each step in a diagnosis.

I’ve made my way up through the Hollywood system and although I love movies and I love most of the people working in marketing as well, I don’t always love the entitlement and egos. I’ve met cancer patients I’d like to sit for coffee with any day over a celebrity. We need to value the loves around us, those who care for us, those who get us. And enjoy entertainment for what it is, not for who it is.

Every challenge I’ve ever had–in work, in starting something new, in creating something that seemed too big or bold, I’ve always learned. Big learnings, not little ones. The ones you get from stepping way outside your comfort zone. I love those learnings more than anything. I love the risks and the intangible rewards more than I can begin to articulate.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Senior Vice-President of International Marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures.

I am the Founder of a cancer care package company called CaraKit.com.

I started a marketing agency called Performance Entertainment USA, Inc.

I made a movie called “Exit Strategy” and two television pilots.

I have studied in Mexico for a semester, in Italy for months, I’ve leaned life and languages, Traveled to every continent (except Antartica), have traveled internationally solidly for 25 years by myself and with my husband and family.

I am proud of my work on a million movie campaigns, but especially on BARBIE. Our teams around the world didn’t understand the power of this film in the beginning. The doll was “American” it was expensive and didn’t really appeal to the world in the same way it did to American girls. But I’d seen the movie, I’d seen the brand power on a global level, and I knew this was an opportunity for women and girls around the world to finally have a movie made for them. I called it “The Avengers” for girls. Moms could take their girls. Dads could take their girls. And their brothers could absolutely come along to watch, too.

Women spend a lot of our time focused on things made for boys and men. And although it can be lovely and entertaining, we’ve also been conditioned to believe it’s our story, even when it’s not. BARBIE gave a thoughtful voice to big questions that women have in our lives, questions that teenager girls are wondering about as well, and we came together to celebrate it–the comedy, the challenges and even a few of the possible answers. I traveled the world sharing this opportunity with our WB offices everywhere and they shared this movie in a big way with the world. I’m incredibly proud of my ability to have assisted this amazing filmmaking team in their remarkable achievement and led our stellar global WB teams as well.

I’m also proud of starting CaraKit.com which provides useful care packages for women going through surgery, radiation and chemo for cancer. I was diagnosed the first time in 2020 with breast cancer and in 2024 with brain cancer. But my desire to help other women didn’t change along the way. Whether it was talking to the women in the infusion chair next to me, relying on women who called me to share their stories, or sharing ideas with our CaraKit community–this is a purpose I believe in with every ounce of my being. Women need certain support and certain over-the-counter products to help them through side effects. They can’t use the ones in their medicine cabinet already with harsh chemicals, dyes, fragrances, parebens, sulfates, you name it. So I researched and interviewed women, surveyed them online, talked to doctors and worked to find a way to make a gift that friends could give that was comforting from the second it arrived on each doorstep.

I know we are defined by our characters; I’m teaching this to my 6 and 9 year old boys every day. I’m proud of my chacter, of my choices. My choices don’t fit someone else’s story, they are from my heart and soul. And that joy is mine every day.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My husband is a big supporter of mine. He is my favorite person to be around after 23 years. He is a wonderful father and partner. When I told him the biopsy came back as cancer he said, “this isn’t your fault.” When I was 30 he asked why I kept talking about the things I wanted to do but never did them. I learn from him every, single day.

And the number of teachers, mentors, beautiful people I’ve seen and learned from are too many to count but also too valuable to ignore. We have the ability every day to be a positive light to someone. I’ve benefited from so many lights, I’ve felt the glow every day of my life and I strive to help share mine with others as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carakit.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/carakits
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/carakits
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelliemaltagliati