Leadership

President, Clarillon Pictures | Actress & Producer

BLANCA BLANCO

Blanca Blanco is an award-winning American actress, producer, and President of Clarillon Pictures, which she co-founded with partner producer and entrepreneur John Winthrop. Guided by a belief in underrepresented stories about women who rise, she makes uplifting, character-driven films about people who transform their own lives and leave audiences believing they can too. The company’s debut feature, VICE (working title), is set for release next year, with her serving as executive producer and taking on the lead role — a natural extension of Clarillon’s mission to put women’s stories at the center of the frame.
Blanca’s work as an actress has earned her Emmy contender status in 2022 for her role as Lola in Tale of Tails, Best Actress for the western film Eye for Eye, and Best Supporting Actress for her villain role in Betrayed, opposite John Savage. Most recently, her portrayal of therapist Katarina Lopez in Finding Nicole earned her a 2024 Best Supporting Actress award. Her on-screen credits include Torch alongside Rita Moreno, Fake News opposite Eric Roberts, and Woman on the Edge alongside Rumer Willis.
A regular presence at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys, Blanca is frequently invited to prestigious festivals such as Cannes, and has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, Vanity Fair, and People. She is also a bestselling author: her book Breaking the Mold (Briton Publishing) won the Favorite Inspirational Book award.
Blanca holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Washington State University and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Eastern Washington University, both earned with honors. She trained under DGA Award-winning director Gordon Hunt and continues to train with Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland. She is a dedicated supporter of the LA Mission, the American Cancer Society, and Step Up.
Chief Executive Officer of Clarillon Pictures

JOHN WINTHROP

John Winthrop is the Chief Executive Officer of Clarillon Pictures, bringing to the world of film a career built on sharp instincts, global experience, and a proven ability to lead across law, business, and entrepreneurship.
His connection to performance runs further back than most would guess: he played the Common Man in the 1964 St. Mark’s School of Texas production of A Man for All Seasons, opposite Tommy Lee Jones and William Hootkins — later of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Batman. He went on to Yale, where he double-majored in History and History of Art, before turning to the law. He clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, then jumped continents to Paris, practicing as a licensed French lawyer and building a career in cross-border deal-making.
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JOHN WINTHROP

From Paris to London to Los Angeles, Winthrop rose fast. He ran European operations for a major American conglomerate, then took the reins as CEO of its LA headquarters — steering a portfolio spanning real estate development, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals. When the company was acquired by a Japanese powerhouse, Winthrop didn’t slow down — he went out on his own, founding Veritas Imports and building it into a thriving wine and spirits import and distribution business.

It’s a trajectory Winthrop knows firsthand: reinventing yourself, betting on your own instincts, and rising again in a new arena. That understanding is what drew him back to the world he’d glimpsed onstage decades earlier. Alongside partner Blanca Blanco, he founded Clarillon Pictures with a mission close to his own story — telling uplifting, character-driven films about people who transform their own lives and leave audiences believing they can too. As Chief Executive Officer, Winthrop brings the discipline of a dealmaker and the instincts of an entrepreneur to every project on the slate, which now includes Vice (working title), directed by Harley Wallen, set for release in 2027.
Winthrop previously served on the boards of LA Opera and the French-American Chamber of Commerce, and remains deeply engaged in his two home communities of Pasadena, California, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.