HBO Max Announces Animated and Scripted Originals Kids and Family Team

The senior executives tapped to lead original kids and family content for HBO Max were announced today by Jennifer O'Connell, Executive Vice President, Original Non-Fiction and Kids, HBO Max. Joining the kids and family team are Billy Wee, Senior Vice President, Original Animation, and Nikki Reed, Vice President, Kids and Family Scripted Originals, both reporting to O'Connell. Bringing veteran experience in the kids and family space, the group will create a deep slate of family-oriented, animated and scripted originals for WarnerMedia's direct-to-consumer offering scheduled to launch in spring of 2020.

"The kids and family space has a long history at WarnerMedia, from our legendary animation to classic motion pictures, and is now an essential part of HBO Max," said Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer, HBO Max, President, TNT, TBS & truTV. "We now have a top-notch team to create a slate of original content appealing to kids, tweens, young adults and the whole family."

"Our kids and family team is extraordinary!" said O'Connell. "Billy has extensive experience in animation and strong relationships within the animated creative community, as well as substantial ties with our colleagues at both Warner Brothers Animation and Cartoon Network. Nikki has worked for the industry's premiere kids and family networks and has developed some of the most popular kids shows. These two are the perfect architects to build our animated and scripted kids and family business with a tone and personality unique to HBO Max."

Billy Wee has been named Senior Vice President, Original Animation, HBO Max. Reporting to both O'Connell and Suzanna Makkos, Executive Vice President, Original Comedy and Animation, he will oversee all original animated programming for the WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer offering, including adult animation, kids & family and anime. Previously, Wee served as Vice President of Original Programming, TBS, where he joined in 2016. There he developed both live-action and animated shows including hit series The Last OG, anthology comedy series THE GUEST BOOK and animated space epic FINAL SPACE for TBS and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Prior to TBS, Wee was a producer at Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks TV and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison, where he developed and produced the popular hit series THE GOLDBERGS for ABC. At DreamWorks TV, he oversaw drama series THE BORGIAS for Showtime and Terra Nova for Fox.

Nikki Reed has been named Vice President, Kids and Family Scripted Originals, HBO Max. With more than 20 years experience developing feature films and television series, she will lead premium original scripted programming in the kids and family space. Most recently, Reed served as Vice President of Original Series Development for Nickelodeon. Previous to that, she worked at Disney, overseeing Disney Channel and Disney XD, where she was responsible for development of all live-action series, including popular series Shake It Up, Lab Rats and Girl Meets World. During that time, she also identified the Hyperion book series which served as the inspiration for the highly-rated original movie Descendants. Reed's additional career credits include executive producing the Disney biopic Invincible starring Mark Wahlberg; and developing the feature films National Treasure starring Nic Cage and The Kid starring Bruce Willis, during her time as Vice President Entertainment for Junction Entertainment. Reed began her career as an assistant for prolific film producer Kathleen Kennedy at the Kennedy/Marshall Company.

To post a comment, you must register and login.