Angelica Cob-Baehler

Cob-Baehler was born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1971 and moved with her family to Burbank, California, in 1981. She attended UCLA and graduated with a degree in political science in 1993.[6]

Cob-Baehler interned at Elektra Records during her senior year in college, and was hired as an assistant in the publicity department at Atlantic Records in 1993.[7] She was promoted shortly thereafter, and as a publicist for the label she worked with artists including Kid Rock, Sugar Ray, P.O.D., Jewel, and Stone Temple Pilots.[7] In 1997, she was promoted to national director of media relations, and transferred from Atlantic's Los Angeles office to their New York headquarters.[8][9] She left the company in 2001 to accept a job at Columbia Records.[10]

At Columbia, Cob-Baehler supervised the label's West Coast press department while working with John Mayer, System of a Down, The Offspring, Coheed and Cambria, and the Raveonettes, among others.[11][10] She was named Vice President of Publicity in 2002 and soon met then 17-year-old Katy Perry, who had yet to release an album on the label, and became one of her earliest supporters.[12][13]

In 2005, Cob-Baehler was named senior vice president of publicity at Virgin Records.[10] At Virgin, she was responsible for press campaigns for artists including Thirty Seconds to Mars, Joss Stone, KT Tunstall, and Iggy Pop and the Stooges.[10] When the Virgin label was merged with Capitol/EMI, she was appointed to the position of senior vice president of media and creative services for EMI Music's associated labels: Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Manhattan, and Virgin.[8]

With Perry's album unreleased by Columbia, Cob-Baehler began a campaign to bring her to Capitol Music Group in 2005 (by grabbing the files from Columbia).[13] She gained the support of Jason Flom, then the CEO of the label, and Perry was signed to Capitol/Virgin in 2006.[13] Cob-Baehler was credited for creative direction and A&R on Perry's album One of the Boys, which went on to sell more than 5,000,000 albums worldwide. She also served as the creative director for Perry's Teenage Dream.[13][14] Cob-Baehler continued to work closely with Perry until Cob-Baehler left EMI in 2011 to become executive vice president of marketing at Epic Records.[15][14]

In addition to heading marketing at Epic, Cob-Baehler served in an a&r capacity. Among other artists, she signed the controversial hip hop band Death Grips, who were named Spin magazine's "Artist of the Year" in 2012.[16][17][18]

In February 2013, Cob-Baehler joined The Firm/The Online Network as the head of marketing and associate producer.[19] Then known as Prospect Park Productions, she led the marketing campaign for the soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live about which The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Not only are they (TOLN) the first company to revive a long-running daytime drama (thus changing the game for the genre entirely) they are taking two brands with a combined age of over 80 years and basically making them cool again.”[19] Production was halted in 2013 due to a dispute with ABC, and both series were ultimately cancelled.[20][21] Following the cancellation, Cob-Baehler transitioned to a position as an artist manager.[22] She was promoted to head the Firm's music operations in June 2016,. She also served as the chief marketing officer for Big 3, a basketball league founded by Jeff Kwatinetz and Ice Cube.[5][1]

Cob-Baehler appeared on Billboard's 2011 list of prominent women in music.[18] She co-produced the 2017 20-episode season of Hip Hop Squares. She served on the board of directors for Generosity Water, the Thirst Project and MusiCares.[18]

Cob-Baehler lived in Los Angeles with her husband, photographer Chapman Baehler, with whom she had two daughters.[23] Cob-Baehler died in Los Angeles from cancer on November 21, 2018, at the age of 47.[24]