Dwight D. Smith
Co-President / Co-Founder
Dwight D. Smith is the Co-Founder and Co-President of Mission Control Media, an award-winning production company specializing in the development and production of original entertainment.
Since co-founding Mission Control with producing partner Michael Agbabian in 2008, Smith has helped build the company into one of the industry’s leading independent production companies. Mission Control’s credits include the Emmy and WGA Award-winning Hollywood Game Night, the Critics Choice Award-winning Face Off, Netflix’s Pressure Cooker and First and Last, HGTV’s Barbie DreamHouse Challenge, The Soup, and many other series and specials.
Smith began his television career as a writer with credits including General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and several network sitcoms. He and Agbabian first teamed up on projects including Last Comic Standing, Weakest Link, Game Show Marathon and Phenomenon before launching Mission Control Media.
Throughout his career, Smith has collaborated with leading talent, studios, networks, streaming platforms and global brands to develop original entertainment across a wide range of genres, formats and platforms.
Michael Agbabian
Co-President / Founder
Michael Agbabian is the Co-Founder and Co-President of Mission Control Media, an award-winning production company specializing in the development and production of original entertainment.
Since co-founding Mission Control with producing partner Dwight D. Smith, Agbabian has helped create and produce a wide range of original programming for broadcast, cable and streaming platforms. Mission Control’s credits include the Emmy and WGA Award-winning Hollywood Game Night, the Critics Choice Award-winning Face Off, Netflix’s Pressure Cooker and First and Last, HGTV’s Barbie DreamHouse Challenge, The Soup, and many other series and specials. In addition to original programming, Agbabian has collaborated with leading talent, studios and brands to develop entertainment across a variety of genres and platforms.
Before launching Mission Control, Agbabian and Smith collaborated on projects including Last Comic Standing, Weakest Link, Game Show Marathon, Phenomenon, I’ve Got a Secret and Hit Me Baby One More Time.
A Los Angeles native, Agbabian graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is of Armenian descent and is active in Armenian-related charities and causes.
Michael Agbabian
Co-President / Executive Producer
Michael Agbabian is Co-President and Co-Founder of Mission Control Media, consistently named by RealScreen as one of the top non-script production companies in the world. Mission Control has amassed an impressive array of credits spanning network, cable and streaming outlets while producing a robust slate of premium content each year.
Agbabian is the Executive Producer and Co-creator of NBC’s Hollywood Game Night hosted by Jane Lynch. The star-studded game show has earned multiple Emmys and WGA awards among others. Agbabian also serves as Executive Producer and Co-creator of Syfy’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning special FX make-up competition, Face Off.
Other Mission Control projects include the reboot of the iconic comedy series The Soup, First and Last for Netflix, Apple’s first show, Planet of the Apps; Celebrity Food Fight hosted by Andy Richter for Food Network and Tracks, a music game show with Christina Aguilera for Spike. Additional projects include Floored (Quibi), Pop5 (Quibi), New Year’s Eve Game Night (NBC), Framework (Spike); How to be a Grown-Up (truTV), Hair Jacked (truTV), Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen (Syfy), Hot Set (Syfy), WCG Ultimate Gamer (SYFY) and Late Night Liars (GSN).
Along with producing partner, Dwight D Smith, Agbabian, has also produced such projects as Last Comic Standing, Game Show Marathon, Weakest Link, Phenomenon, I’ve Got a Secret and Hit Me Baby One More Time.
Agbabian is a Los Angeles native having attended the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is of Armenian descent and is active in Armenian-related charities and causes.
Brent Burnette
Senior Vice President, Development and Current
Brent Burnette was born in Kansas and raised in Western Massachusetts. He graduated from Syracuse University and then began his career in New York City on the original primetime version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
After working for several years in the game show genre, Burnette moved over to reality television and began accumulating credits on a number of different shows including Undercover Boss, Wife Swap and What Not To Wear.
In 2005, Burnette began his career in development when he helped launch and serve as Director of Programming for the New York Television Festival (NYTVF); the first independent television festival. Later, Burnette was VP of Current Series and Development for Magilla Entertainment and then SVP of Development for Zodiak NY.
In 2014, Burnette moved to Los Angeles and spent the next two years developing comedy projects as Head of Development for Wanda Sykes’ production company, Push It Productions.
Over his 15 plus year career in entertainment, Burnette has been lucky enough to work in a variety of genres and accumulated credits with a number of different networks including ABC, CBS, Discovery, ESPN, History, MTV, TLC, and truTV.
He joined Mission Control Media after previously working with Michael and Dwight on the project, How To Be A Grown Up.
Brent Burnette
Vice President, Current and Development
Brent Burnette was born in Kansas and raised in Western Massachusetts. He graduated from Syracuse University and then began his career in New York City on the original primetime version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
After working for several years in the game show genre, Burnette moved over to reality television and began accumulating credits on a number of different shows including Undercover Boss, Wife Swap, and What Not To Wear.
In 2005, Burnette began his career in development when he helped launch and serve as Director of Programming for the New York Television Festival (NYTVF); the first independent television festival. Later on, Burnette was VP of Current Series and Development for Magilla Entertainment and then SVP of Development for Zodiak NY.
In 2014, Burnette moved to Los Angeles and spent the next two years developing comedy projects as Head of Development for Wanda Sykes’ production company, Push It Productions.
Over his 15 plus year career in entertainment, Burnette has been lucky enough to work in a variety of genres and accumulated credits with a number of different networks including ABC, CBS, Discovery, ESPN, History, MTV, TLC, and truTV.
He joins Mission Control Media after previously working with Michael and Dwight on the project, How To Be A Grown Up.
Judson Jackson
Vice President, Production
Judson Jackson was born in Akron, Ohio and lived everywhere from New York City to Sao Paulo, Brazil, before making his way to California. Having grown up around television, Jackson produced his first television series called No Room For Talk at the age of 17 for INSP and hasn’t looked back since.
Credit highlights include: Disney’s Prop Culture, Friday Night Vibes with Tiffany Haddish, Disney Insider, Rita Wilson’s Liner Notes, Money Court, Stephen Colbert’s Pickled, Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, and the docu-series Action for Universal Pictures.
Jackson puts his international background to good use having produced in such diverse locations as London’s West End, stadiums in Israel, rooftops in Athens, on the shores of the Caribbean, hidden shacks in rural Arkansas, and legendary stages in Hollywood. Utilizing his passion for creative problem solving and with a passion for constantly evolving technology, Jackson has been able to make production happen anytime, anywhere while creatively managing the budget so it all comes to life. This skillset has afforded him the opportunity to work with a wide variety of studios and outlets.
To date Jackson has produced over 800+ episodes of television which have aired across the United States and around the world.
Jackson currently resides in Los Angeles with his husband Brayden, dog Gloria, and cat Schrodinger
Judson Jackson
Vice President, Production
Judson Jackson was born in Akron, Ohio and lived everywhere from New York City to Sao Paulo, Brazil, before making his way to California. Having grown up around television, Jackson produced his first television series called No Room For Talk at the age of 17 for INSP and hasn’t looked back since.
Jackson puts his international background to good use having produced in such diverse locations as London’s West End, stadiums in Israel, rooftops in Athens, on the shores of the Caribbean, hidden shacks in rural Arkansas, and legendary stages in Hollywood. Utilizing his passion for creative problem solving and with a passion for constantly evolving technology, Jackson has been able to make production happen anytime, anywhere while creatively managing the budget so it all comes to life. This skillset has afforded him the opportunity to work with a wide variety of studios and outlets including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Food Network, HBOMax, YouTube Originals, Universal Pictures, Twitch, INSP, TNT, TBS, and National Geographic among others.
To date Jackson has produced over 800+ episodes of television which have aired across the United States and around the world.
Jackson currently resides in Los Angeles with his husband Brayden, dogs Bruno and Gloria, and cat Schrodinger.
Lindsey Byster
Development Coordinator