European kids content producer Cottonwood Media — the production arm of Federation Kids & Family behind The Ollie and Moon Show and Squish — announced a collaboration with creative producer Sarah Haasz. The Canadian former network exec will oversee Cottonwood’s growing North American slate of live-action series and animation, while giving the studio first right of refusal to her original creations.
Cottonwood founders David Michel, Zoé Carrera & Cécile Lauritano commented, “We have known and enjoyed working with Sarah as a broadcaster for over a decade. We couldn’t be happier to have her involved with Cottonwood in developing our North American slate. Sarah has brilliant creative instincts, very much in line with our goal as a company: to produce unique, high end live-action and animation content.”
“I’m thrilled to be collaborating again with David Michel and look forward to working with the talented team at Cottonwood,” said Haasz. “David’s history of creating premium content for preschool and family audiences will enable me to pursue unique, high quality co-productions to add to Cottonwood’s already robust development slate.”
Haasz spent her first 20 years in children’s television as a broadcast executive for top Canadian networks, including YTV, Treehouse TV, CBC Kids, Disney XD Canada, Disney Junior Canada and, most recently, Family Channel. She then moved into kids’ TV production, creating original IPs and assisting producers in bringing their shows to fruition.
As part of her network portfolio, Haasz was involved in the execution of successful series and movies, including The Next Step, Raising Expectations and Justin Time. She was also Creative Producer for The Next Step Live On Stage Tour 2015. Over the course of her career, Haasz is credited for her work on over 2,000+ hours of children’s programming in a variety of genres. She was an instructor at Centennial College in Toronto for the Children’s Entertainment Post Graduate Program and is currently on the board of the Youth Media Alliance.
