Gena McCarthy is a television executive producer. She holds a B.A. in English Writing and History from the University of Pittsburgh. She began her career in 1993 working in children's television at a PBS affiliate, WQED Pittsburgh. She then worked in TLC’s programming and production units from 1998 to 2004. From 2006 to 2008, she was Vice President, Development and Production at WE tv. McCarthy then became Senior Vice President Development and Production for Discovery Channel. She joined Lifetime Networks in 2010 as Senior Vice President, Reality and Alternative Programming. In September 2013, she became Senior Vice President, Programming and Development for FYI and was promoted to Executive Vice President of Programming and Development in 2016. She returned to Lifetime in March 2018 in an expanded role to oversee all non-fiction development and production. In 2020, she was appointed Executive Vice President, Head of Programming for Lifetime Unscripted and Head of Programming, FYI.