Blue Ant Media announced Tuesday the expansion of its kids, family and young adult division, uniting its studios and leadership under a streamlined, integrated model designed to accelerate growth and expand its global content pipeline.
The division is led by Jennifer Twiner McCarron, as president of Kids, Family & YA, and sits within Blue Ant Studios under co-president Matt Hornburg, who oversees global content development and production.
The restructuring of the division follows Blue Ant Studios’ reorganization earlier this year, whereby it adopted a new genre-based operating model for the company.
The Kids, Family & YA business will now operate under three verticals:
- Content Development and Commercial Strategy, led by Diane Rankin, executive vice president of content development and commercial strategy at Blue Ant Studios. Rankin will drive the originals and coproduction pipeline of new content and partnerships across kids, family and YA for global buyers, working closely with the studio’s live action and animation production divisions, as well as the kids and family sales and acquisition teams at Blue Ant Rights. Her leadership team includes Hillary Zwick Turner, senior vice president of scripted, live action content, and A.J. Trauth, who has been promoted to senior vice president of scripted, animation and live action content.
- Scripted and Live Action, led by Lindsay Macadam, executive vice president of scripted and live action at Blue Ant Studios. Macadam oversees the full lifecycle of live action scripted production from development through delivery, driving creative execution, project pipeline, and managing key buyer and partner relationships and production services opportunities. Macadam’s team will work in collaboration with Turner and Trauth and the development team from concept through execution across the scripted slate.
- Animation, led by Joel Bradley, executive vice president of animation at Blue Ant Studios. Bradley will lead the combined animation division across 2D and 3D production services, coproductions and animated originals spanning preschool to adult, building on the foundations of Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment. His leadership team includes Tori Coulthart, senior vice president of animation, who will lead Jam Filled Entertainment, and Steve Grover, senior vice president of animation, who will lead Atomic Cartoons. Blue Ant Studios will maintain both the Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment brands, each tagged as ‘A Blue Ant Studios Animation Company’ in the near term.
These teams will work closely with Blue Ant Rights, including Richard Goldsmith, executive vice president of kids and family brands, who leads Blue Ant’s new consumer products division.
As part of these changes, Lori McIndoe, former president of Jam Filled Entertainment, will transition out of the company, Blue Ant Media said in a press release.
“The expansion of our Kids, Family & YA division brings together the full strength of our creative and commercial capabilities in a more unified and focused way,” McCarron said in the press release. “By aligning our development, production and animation teams, we are better positioned to scale efficiently, respond to global demand for premium content, and drive long-term growth, while expanding our creative ambition and building a stronger slate of globally relevant IP for partners and audiences around the world.”
Blue Ant said its integrated studio and production model is already delivering results with several soon-to-be-announced productions bringing together Jam Filled Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons, leveraging talent and production efficiencies across Ontario and British Columbia.
