Actress Leah Pipes has joined the cast of CW’s upcoming drama “The Originals,” a spinoff of “The Vampire Diaries.” Pipes will have the lead human role in the drama, which will air a backdoor pilot as an episode of “Vampire Diaries” on April 25.

NBCUniversal has made four hires, naming Laura Molen executive vice president of cable ad sales, Peter Lazarus senior vice president of cable ad sales, Lou Koskovolis senior vice president of sales and sales marketing for NBCU’s Golf Media, and Katie Larkin senior vice president of ad sales strategy. Molen joins from Univision, Lazarus from USA Today, Koskovolis from Major League Baseball and Larkin from Turner.

Univision has promoted Diana Terry to vice president of corporate marketing, up from her previous position as director of corporate marketing. Before she joined Univision, Terry was at Meredith Hispanic Ventures.

Steven Schachter has been named vice president of business development for media distribution at Cannella Response Television, the direct response media agency. Schachter has previously held positions at Motorola Broadband Communications, TVN Entertainment and Valley Magazine.

Moroch Partners has promoted Bob Shallcross to chief creative officer, reporting to agency president Rob Boswell. Shallcross, who has been with the agency since 2010, was previously executive creative director.

USA Today has named Derek Murphy executive vice president and general manager, putting him in charge of the paper’s day-to-day operations. Murphy joins from AOL Huffington Post Media Group, where he was general manager of multicultural media.

BBC America has promoted Matt Stein to senior vice president of marketing, promotion and creative services, effective immediately. Stein joined the network in 2010 as vice president of promotions and creative services.

Veria Living has named Joseph Cho vice president of digital, a new position at the cable network. Cho was previously a senior product manager at UrbanDaddy.

Kate Forte, president of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, was let go from her position as Harpo Studios readies to focus more on reality programming rather than movies. Forte had been in charge of Harpo Films for 18 years.

CNN has named Federico Quadrani executive producer of its still-untitled Washington-based program hosted by Jake Tapper, which premieres in March. Quadrani will join the network from MSNBC, where he has been since 2009.

Mark Balelo, a California businessman who appeared on the A&E reality series “Storage Wars,” was found dead at his workplace on Monday at age 40. No official cause was given, but TMZ is reporting Balelo killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. An autopsy was scheduled today. He was arrested on Saturday for alleged possession of methamphetamine.

Fortune magazine’s Pattie Sellers has added responsibility, becoming senior editor at large and executive director of Most Powerful Women live content at Time Inc., as well as executive director of Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women Summit. The title has also named Leigh Gallagher co-chair of MPW, joining Stephanie Mehta and Nina Easton, while Fortune reporter Colleen Leahey becomes digital and program manager for MPW.

Tags: Colleen Leahey, Federico Quadrani, Jake Tapper, Kate Forte, Laura Molen, Leigh Gallagher, Mark Balelo, Pattie Sellers, Stephanie Mehta