Longtime Nickelodeon executive Nina Hahn is leaving the kids’ entertainment powerhouse after almost two decades, announcing her exit from parent company Paramount Global this week. Hahn will be pursuing advisory and consulting roles and expanding her executive coaching clientele under Nina Hahn Consulting.
“The end of an era? Well actually it feels more like the journey of a lifetime,” Hahn wrote on LinkedIn. “Today marks my last day at Nickelodeon and what a magnificent run it has been. Walked into the orange towers 18 years ago with the simple mantra of wanting to work with good people on good projects and am now walking out of those same towers having worked with great people on great projects. It’s been a privilege to work hard, have fun, and make some history alongside of so many people building such an iconic brand.”
For nearly two years prior to her departure, Hahn served as Head of VIS Kids (ViacomCBS International), having previously held the post of SVP Production & Development for Paramount Global, a newly created role charged with overseeing a global original content strategy across 170 countries. Since bringing Hahn on in 2005, Nickelodeon has delivered over 2,000 hours of original kids’ animation and live-action content to screens around the world. Hahn prevoiusly held positions at Sunbow, HBO and The Jim Henson Company.
Eric Schrier has received an expanded role at Disney General Entertainment, moving from his post as President of FX Entertainment to become President, Disney Television Studios & Business Operations. Leveraging his experience built over two decades working with Chairman of FX and FX Productions John Landgraf, Schrier will take a cohesive approach to operations across DGE while shepherding the teams at Disney Television Studios, including 20th Television, 20th Television Animation and ABC Signature.
Since 2002, Schrier has been creatively involved with more than 100 FX original programs, totaling almost 2,000 hours of content, which earned 452 Emmy Award nominations and won 82. This includes hit seires like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Atlanta, The Bear and animated favorite Archer. Reporting to Schrier are studio heads Karey Burke, Ppresident of 20th Television; Marci Proietto, EVP, 20th Television Animation; Jonnie Davis, President of ABC Signature; and in business operations, Trisha Husson, EVP of Strategy & Finance.
DGE also announced expanded leadership roles for Craig Erwich, now President of ABC Entertainment, Hulu & Disney Branded Television Streaming Originals; and Shannon Ryan, upped to President of Marketing for DGE. Bryan Noon is stepping down from his role as President of Entertainment for Walt Disney Television after less than a year, but will remain on to help with the transition.
Dallas-based feature film, series, game cinematic and multiplatform content studio Brazen Animation (brazenanimation.com) announced three senior hires have been brought onboard to help lead the production of the studio’s expanding slate of projects:
As the new VP of Production and Operations, Marc Matthews has worked in feature animation and production for the last 15 years. He spent time with Reel FX Animation working on animated feature films such as Freebirds and Book of Life, then onto Animal Logic in Vancouver where he led production for The LEGO Movie 2 and DC League of Super-Pets for Warner Bros. His production career started in production finance, expanded into content development and producing, and finally into the Head of Production role, overseeing a studio with over 300 staff and artists producing multiple feature films and other ancillary content.
Chris Osbrink joined as a Creative Director. Previously, Osbrink has written, directed or produced for Netflix, Universal, Warner Bros, Riot, Comedy Central, ShadowMachine, Lionsgate and MTV. He has sold multiple features, served as the showrunner for premier animation companies and collaborated with some of the best artistic talent in the business. His latest pilot was produced by SyFy in 2021. He recently worked as a writer/director for Blur Studios, where he created AAA game trailers for Elder Scrolls, Division, PUBG, Fable and League of Legends.
And Greg Rizzi also jumped onboard as an Associate Creative Director this year. He most recently came from Blur where, as Animation Supervisor, he led animation on large cinematic projects including League of Legends: Wild Rift and Valorant. Rizzi’s career began in 2003 when he was hired as a previs artist for Star Wars: Episode III. Along with his fellow Lucasfilm co-workers, he became one of the founding members of The Third Floor previs studio. His prior experience includes stints at Electronic Arts, Reel FX, Lucasfilm Animation, Blue Sky Studios and Disney Feature Animation.
Toronto-based children’s content producer Guru Studio announced the appointment of Sue Jung as Head of Talent Acquisition and Community Engagement. The studio is ramping up hiring across a range of new projects, including the new family miniseries Charlotte’s Web (Sesame Workshop), the new CG series for My Magic Pet Morphle (Moonbug Ent.) and new seasons of the global hit PAW Patrol. (See open posititions at gurustudio.com/careers.)
Reporting to VP of People of Culture Babita Jassal, Jung will lead the company’s overall recruitment process including new hires, internal moves and internships across all productions and corporate roles. She will work closely with the studio’s senior leadership team and all hiring managers to attract and nurture top, diverse talent and champion Guru’s internal community initiatives such as mentorship and training programs for artists.
Jung brings over 15 years of experience leading studio operations and talent management for companies such as Soho VFX, Snowball Studios and Toonbox Entertainment, helping to oversee projects such as Muppet Babies, the feature film franchise The Nut Job and most recently Warner Bros.’ Batwheels.
More moves:
- The Fuse Group of VFX studios has named long-term RSP executive Jennie Zeiher to the role of President of Rising Sun Pictures (rsp.com.au), succeeding Managing Director and Co-Founder Tony Clark. Zeiher will report to The Fuse Group CEO, Sébastien Bergeron. Clark will continue as Managing Director, consulting to both Bergeron and Zeiher.
- VFX house DNEG (dneg.com) welcomes Gabby Gourrier as Co-President, VFX and Diana Ibanez as Executive Vice President, Film and Episodic VFX. Both execs will be based out of the company’s Los Angeles studio, working alongside President Josh Jaggars and reporting to CEO & Chairman Namit Malhotra.
- Screen Auckland (aucklandnz.com) has appointed former Screenwest Australia exec Matthew Horrocks as its new Manager. Screen Auckland is New Zealand’s largest regional film office, boasting an extensive creative community spanning production, post-production, gaming, animation and VFX.
- Framestore (framestore.com) welcomes Arek Komorowski as its newest VFX Supervisor bringing two decades of experience to its Vancouver studio. His credits include Moonfall, Terminator: Dark Fate, Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- Post-production studio TBD Post (tbdpost.com) as brought on colorist Brian Singler, building on the Austin shop’s appointments of Executive Producer Ron Rendon and editor Evan Linton earlier this year.
