Tag: VRP

JuVee Productions/Andrew Wang VRP

Cory
JuVee Productions/Andrew Wang

3500 West Olive Ave, Ste 1470, Burbank, CA 91505  |  818.557.1255
JuVee Productions is an artist driven, Los Angeles-based production company that develops and produces independent film, television, theater, and digital content across all spaces of narrative entertainment. JuVee Productions seeks to produce economical yet premium, sophisticated, and character-driven stories. With an emphasis on producing narratives from a diverse range of emerging and established voices alike, JuVee Productions aims to become the go-to creative hub where the next generation of filmmakers and artists have the space to craft dynamic stories spanning the broad spectrum of humanity.
JuVee Productions has an overall deal with ABC Studios as well as ABC Signature Studios.
Filmography: 
Untitled Harriet Tubman Project (TV)
Conviction (TV)
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree
Vivian
Barbara Jordan 2017
Custody 2016
I’m Your Man 2016
Lila & Eve 2015
Employees:
Viola Davis President/CEO
Julius Tennon President, Development and Production
Kaylon Hunt VP, Development and Production
Andrew Wang Head of TV, Development and Production
 
Twitter (1,253 followers): https://twitter.com/juveeprods
Andrew Wang
Joining the JuVee team in 2016, Andrew Wang was previously Vice President of Scripted Television and Production for the cable network Bravo, where he was responsible for establishing the cabler as a home for scripted programming. While at Bravo, he developed Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, the comedy Odd Mom Out, and the upcoming dark comedy My So-Called Wife. Prior to joining Bravo, Wang previously held the role of Vice President of TV Development & Production for Alloy Entertainment where he was involved in developing and managing popular television series such as Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars and 666 Park Avenue. He was instrumental in bringing several successful hour long drama and half-hour comedy series to networks including NBC, ABC, The CW, ABC Family and Nickelodeon. Wang started his career at Storyline Entertainmentwhere during his three years there, he oversaw scripted and non-fiction series under ABC Studios, as well as developed longform projects underSony Television Pictures including ABC’s A Raisin In The Sun and A&E’s Wedding Wars. Wang graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Radio, Television and Film.
Twitter (338 followers): https://twitter.com/wangwangme
In the Media: 
Viola Davis Inks Overall Development Deal With ABC Studios | Variety | Apr 28, 2016
ABC is eyeing more hits from Viola Davis — this time, with the Emmy winner stepping behind the camera.
The “How To Get Away with Murder” star’s production company JuVee Productionshas entered into an overall deal with ABC Studios and ABC Signature Studios, Variety has learned.

Under the new pact, JuVee Productions — which Davis founded with her husband, Julius Tennon — will develop new projects for broadcast, cable, streaming services and digital platforms.

Additionally, JuVee has also tapped Bravo’s Andrew Wang to serve as the company’s head of television development and production. At Bravo, Wangwas vice president of scripted television development and production and was responsible for the cabler’s first scripted series, comedy “Odd Mom Out,” drama “Girlfriends Guide to Divorce” and the upcoming dark comedy “My So-Called Wife.” He was at Bravo for four years.

“We started JuVee because we wanted to see narratives that reflected our multi-ethnic and multifaceted culture,” Davis commented. “We wanted to be a part of classic storytelling, and we didn’t want to wait.”

“Our goal has always been to champion bold, authentic, and courageous voices and Andrew Wang is just that. Andrew has an outside-the-box mindset and the experience to propel our vision forward, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome him to our team,” Tennon said of JuVee’s new hire.

Wang added: “Viola Davis’ award-winning work in theater, film, and television has provided a powerful foundation to advocate for greater opportunities for communities that are traditionally underrepresented in film and television, and to tell the stories that haven’t but need to be told. Viola and Julius’ determination to provide these opportunities, and to tell these stories, through new voices and fresh perspectives, in any format, is what excited me about the joining the team at JuVee Productions. We’re thrilled to be working with our partners at ABC Studios to bring JuVee’s vision to life…finding new storytellers and bringing their distinct points of view and character journeys to the screen.”

JuVee’s pact comes just days after ABC Studios signed a production deal with another ABC actress, Kerry Washington. The “Scandal” star will develop projects by way of her Simpson Street banner.

Currently on JuVee Production’s development slate is TNT’s “Conviction,” a legal drama hailing from scribe Ayanna Floyd (“Empire”) and Debra Martin Chase’s Martin Chase Prods.

JuVee is repped by CAA.

Viola Davis Developing Harriet Tubman Movie at HBO | Variety | Apr 27, 2015
Viola Davis is attached to star in an HBO telepic about the life of Harriet Tubman, the activist who helped devise a system that allowed hundreds of slaves to escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

Davis is developing the project with Amblin TV and writer Kirk Ellis, who has penned historical projects for HBO including its “John Adams” miniseries, and “Entourage” exec producer Doug Ellin. The untitled movie is based on the book “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero” by Kate Clifford Larson.

Davis is exec producing with her partner and husband, Julius Tennon; Amblin’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank; Ellin; Jim Lefkowitz; and Cliff Dorfman.

The movie is in the early development stage and has not been given the go-ahead for production. But  it’s eyed for filming during Davis’ hiatus next year from her hit ABC drama “How to Get Away With Murder.”

Tubman became an American icon as a woman who escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and helped organize a network of safe houses to help her relatives. She eventually helped hundreds of slaves to secure their freedom and became the most famous “conductor” on the network.

During the Civil War, Tubman served with the Union Army as a cook and a nurse, but she was eventually pressed into service as a spy.

Tubman is not the only African-American historical figure that Davis has sought to portray onscreen. The actress has been developing a feature film based on the life of pioneering congresswoman Barbara Jordan.

HBO has another biopic of an African-American female icon set to premiere May 16 with Queen Latifah’s portrayal of blues legend Bessie Smith in “Bessie.”

M. A. Fortin & Joshua John Miller VRP

Cory
 

Joshua John Miller is an American actor, screenwriter, author, and director. Miller co-writes with his life partner M.A. Fortin – a Canadian screenwriter and producer. The two wrote the screenplay for the 2015 horror comedy The Final Girls (2015), and the upcoming USA Network drama series Queen of the South.

Writing Filmography:
Fabulous Nobodies In Development
Supermodel Superspy In Development
Queen of the South (TV) 2016
The Final Girls 2015
Dawn (short)  2014
Mirrorball (TV) 2012
Howl 2009
Miller
Fortin
In the Media:

Joshua John Miller’s horror film ‘Final Girls’ conjures up an afterlife as a growing theatrical cult film | LA Times | Jan 15, 2016

Miller, 41, appeared in Kathryn Bigelow’s first film, the 1987 vampire thriller “Near Dark,” the same year his half-brother, Jason Patric, starred in the 1987 vampire blockbuster “Lost Boys.” His mother, Susan Bernard, was featured in the Russ Meyer’s 1965 exploitation classic “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”

And his father, the late actor-playwright Jason Miller (“That Championship Season”), starred as Father Damien Harris in the 1973 devil possession horror flick “The Exorcist.”
“I think what’s interesting is that they are genre movies on the surface, but buried within them are very interesting ideas,” Miller said. “I could write a graduate thesis on each of them.”

And perhaps one day, a college student will write a paper on “The Final Girls,” a slasher comedy that an L.A. Times review described as “Scream” meets “Pleasantville.”

Miller and his writing and life partner, M.A. Fortin, penned this funny but surprisingly emotional slasher comedy about Max (Taissa Farmiga), a young woman mourning the sudden death three years earlier of her actress mother (Malin Akerman). Max reluctantly goes with her friends to a movie theater for a screening of the ’80s slasher flick “Camp Bloodbath,” in which her mother starred.

But when a fire breaks out in the theater and Max and her friends slash the screen to escape, they don’t find themselves in the back alley of the theater but in her mother’s movie. Max must not only come to grips that she’s talking with her mother again, albeit the character her mother is playing, she must help this “shy girl with the clipboard and a guitar” battle with the psycho, machete-wielding masked killer.

“The Final Girls” premiered last year at SXSW, earned a few honors on the festival circuit and had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 73% when it opened in limited release in October theatrically and on VOD. The DVD was released in early November.

And now “Final Girls” could be the next big cult film in the making. It’s the Nuart Theatre’s Friday midnight movie. Miller, Fortin and cast members including Thomas Middleditch and Alia Shawkat will be introducing the screening.

Miller and Fortin conceived the idea for “Final Girls” as a way, Miller said, “to deconstruct the experience of having grown up in the shadow of the most famous horror film ever made and its effects on me and the strange comfort it also gives me.”

He was in his 20s when his father died in 2001 at age 62 of a heart attack. “He died suddenly, and it was quite devastating,” Miller said.

Since the film’s release, Miller has received lovely notes from people who tell him they are shocked that they cried in a horror movie. “That is not something they expected.”

Miller hopes that the midnight screening of “Final Girls” will lead to more bookings across the country. “I think it’s kind of a movie that is so unique and singular, it will find a life. I think these kind of movies last a lifetime.”
————————-
‘The Final Girls’
Where: 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles
When: Midnight Friday
Info: (310) 473-8530, www.landmarktheatres.com/los-angeles/nuart-theatre/

Fortin-Miller to Develop ‘Mirrorball’ for BBC Worldwide’s L.A. Outpost | The Hollywood Reporter | Oct 10, 2011

LONDON – BBC Worldwide’s L.A.-based production division has tapped the writing team of Fortin-Miller — the partnership of Joshua John Miller and Mark Fortin– to develop Mirrorball, a scripted hour-long drama about the disco era.

Set in New York City in the early 1970s the drama will follow the rise and fall of one of the most glamorous and decadent periods in recent history, with a particular focus on the African-American and gay communities who truly shaped the sound and style of disco culture.

The drama is set against the backdrop of a period of turbulent political, social and economic change in America.

Fortin-Miller and BBC Worldwide hope to pitch the project to a variety of cable networks including BBC America.

The writing duo recently sold their first original screenplay, the horror-comedy The Final Girls, to New Line. Todd Strauss-Schulson (A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas) is set to take the director’s chair with Michael London to produce.

Bathsheba Doran VRP

Cory
Bathsheba Doran
 
Bathsheba Doran is a British playwright living in New York City.

Doran grew up in London and studied at Cambridge University. She was a contemporary of Robert Webb and David Mitchell and her first job as a professional writer was comedy sketch writing for their BBC2 show Bruiser. She then worked for several years as a comedy writer, writing for shows like Smack the Pony and TV to Go. In 2000, she moved to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 2003, and went on to become a playwriting fellow at Juilliard School.

Doran’s work has been developed by the O’Neill Playwriting Center, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club and Sundance Theatre Lab, among others. She helped Lear deBessonet with her play transFigures, and is currently under commission from the Atlantic Theater Company and Playwrights Horizons.

She was nominated for a 2012 Writers Guild Award for her work on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. She also wrote episodes for season 2 of the NBC show Smash. She is a writer and co-producer of season 2 of the Showtime show Masters of Sex.

Filmography:
Masters of Sex Writer/Co-Producer 2014
Smash Writer 2013
Boardwalk Empire Writer 2011
Best Week Ever Writer 2004
TV to Go Writer 2001 – 2002
Smack the Pony Writer 2000 – 2001
Bruiser Writer 2000
Plays:
Feminine Wash
Until Morning
The Blind
Peer Gynt
Great Expectations
Living Room in Africa
Time/Unstuck
2 Soldiers
Nest
Nowhere in America
The Parent’s Evening
Kin
The Mystery of Love and Sex
In the Media:
Review: Bathsheba Doran’s “The Mystery of Love & Sex” | SM Mirror | Mar 8, 2016  
Please forgive me for putting Luigi Pirandello’s iconic play “Six Characters in Search of An Author” in the same sentence as Bathsheba Doran’s “The Mystery of Love & Sex”, which could be sub-titled “Four Characters in Search of a Cohesive Play.”
With elevator-type music playing, the interminable Act 1 opening scene begins at a college somewhere in the south. A most strident Mae Whitman’s character of Charlotte, along with her life-long buddy and college roommate Jonny, played by York Walker, are preparing a dinner for her parents, which consists of salad and bread, sans butter. Sharon Lawrence, who punches the sit-com type laugh lines, plays her heavy drinking, pot-smoking mom, Lucinda, who seems to be in a fog most of the time. David Pittu as Howard, Charlotte’s dad, also falls into the trap of playing for laughs. There are multiple jokes about the makeshift table and tablecloth, which is actually a sheet. Howard makes such a fuss about the lack of butter that Jonny volunteers to go buy some.

During Jonny’s absence, her parents grill her about her relationship. Charlotte hints that they are serious. Her dad reminds her that she passed on going to Yale and when he saw he was upsetting her, he backed down saying, “I never met a single person who went to Yale who wasn’t an asshole.” Asshole is always good for a laugh. Howard is a successful novelist who writes cheap detective stories. At one point Jonny asks Howard if he could interview him for a term paper. The eventual outcome isn’t exactly what Howard expected. One could argue, however, that Howard’s multiple trips to the bank more than assuages his guilt feeling of not writing the great American novel. Amidst all the one-liners, mom turns to Charlotte and says, “Listen honey, grandma die.” A big non-sequitur laugh.

Jonny, who is African American and Charlotte, a spoiled Jewish princess, have been friends since they were children, but they never crossed the line into becoming lovers. She decides that they should have sex and strips off all her clothes standing there naked as a Blue Jay. She jumps into bed and waits for Jonny to join her, shouting “Get over here and @#@**& me right now.” Jonny declines leaving her stranded naked in bed saying no for two reasons: 1) She’s drunk and it would be like date rape, and 2) He’s seeing a girl named Monique. Being a Baptist, he claims he’s saving himself for marriage. Or is he? So, instead of sex, they dance. Here’s a shocker. Jonny has a sense of rhythm while Charlotte dances like someone who is physically and rhythmically impaired. Eventually, he finally fesses up to being gay and confesses that he had sex with a man. One of the few lines with any honesty, Charlotte wants to know why he never told her. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want it to be true.” Later on, they have a confrontation in Charlotte’s back yard at which time he says, “You make being your friend a job.” A word about the back yard: Sorry, but when two large branches with dead leaves were lowered indicating the backyard, I couldn’t help but laugh at Takeshi Kata’s set design, which are usually quite wonderful. I don’t know if it was intentionally comical but one has come to expect a certain level of excellence in set designs at the Taper. I accepted the minimalistic designs of the other scenes, which the cast executed in choreographed rhythm. The rest of the technical team consisted of Karl Fredric Lundeberg’s uneven original music and sound design, and Rui Rita’s adequate Lighting Design.

As we move through the mire of slick laugh lines, we find out that Jonny’s mom is quite ill and Charlotte is having a sexual identity crisis. She has a crush on a girl named Claire, a macho-type woman with a shaved head. Poor Charlotte. Vagina or penis? Eventually, in a contrived piece of direction, Jonny, too, strips down declaring, “This is who I am.” Not sure what being naked illuminates who he is, but I suppose it’s an eye-catching theatrical device. That said, there is one very authentic comical moment by an actor with a walk-on role.

After all the go-for-the-laughs in Act 1, Act 2 does a 360 from sitcom/soap opera to sometimes high drama. Let’s sum it all up. A year has passed, and what a year! Charlotte has broken up with Claire. She is going to marry Martha who is a doctor. Mom’s advice: “There’s nothing to be nervous about. You can always get a divorce.” Jonny’s mother has died. He is in love with a pilot, and has volunteered to be the sperm donor for Charlotte and Martha. Mom and dad have split. Dad has a girlfriend named Carol. Jonny has gotten an advance on a book deal. Howard does not receive the news in a warm way as the book is based on an analysis of Howard’s characters, which is not very complimentary.

While you can’t hold a director responsible for the script, you can hold him responsible for the direction. Robert Egan’s direction highlighted the weakest part of Doran’s writing pandering to the built-in laugh lines and going for the shtick.  He did not reign in Mae Whitman’s vocal performance, which consisted of a whole lot of yelling. Perhaps the most honest performance came from York Walker who delivered an unencumbered performance without using a bag of acting tricks.

At one point, after over indulging Charlotte since she was a baby, dad says, “Jesus. Having kids is exhausting.” My sentiments exactly about sitting through this play.

Bathsheba Doran gains clarity in writing ‘The Mystery of Love & Sex’ | LA Times | Feb 8, 2016
Some play titles make you guess what you’re in for. Not “The Mystery of Love & Sex.”

The sheer improbability of meaningful connection with another person is daunting enough, says the play’s author, Bathsheba Doran, let alone the odds of it deepening into commitment, even marriage. “It’s insane,” she says, “but we can’t stop doing it. Which is kind of lovely.”

She puts that philosophy front and center in her play, a drama with a funny bone. The piece had a high-profile premiere at Lincoln Center Theater in New York a year ago with Diane Lane and Tony Shalhoub headlining a cast directed by Sam Gold. In Los Angeles, the play begins previews Feb. 10 at the Mark Taper Forum and opens Feb. 21 with Sharon Lawrence and David Pittu in a cast directed by Robert Egan. Another production is scheduled to open in April at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va.

The back-to-back productions by two of the country’s leading regional theaters should further propel Doran, whose most prominent plays until now were “Kin,” introduced at New York’s Playwrights Horizons in 2011, and “Nest,” given its premiere at Signature in 2007. Television watchers also may have seen her work. She was a writer and co-producer for the Showtime drama “Masters of Sex” in 2014, and she wrote for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” in 2011. One of her “Boardwalk” episodes was nominated for a Writers Guild Award.

“The sky’s the limit for her,” says Michael Ritchie, the Center Theatre Group’s artistic director, who chose “The Mystery of Love & Sex” for the Taper season.

Rehearsal at the Taper had just wrapped for the day as Doran, in town for a week in mid-January to huddle with the cast, sat down to chat. Bash, as she is known to friends and colleagues, is friendly, forthcoming and sincere. She is slightly built, with short, ash-blond hair. At 40, she looks eternally young. London-born, she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her wife, Katie, a former stage manager, and their 3-year-old son, Hugo. A curve in her clothes reveals her to be pregnant with their second child.

Hugo was just a few months old when Doran began writing “The Mystery of Love & Sex.”

“I’m a big believer in the subconscious,” she says. “We dream in story form; stories are inside us. So it’s really about creating the circumstances to let them out.

“I don’t start writing with a conscious agenda or story or even characters. I just go. And I often write pages and pages and pages that tell me nothing about what this play might be, that are discarded until there is a moment where something clicks and I’ll realize that the story has begun to present itself to me via the voices of characters.”

In this case, the voices belong to a family in the present-day South: 21-year-old Charlotte, her lifelong friend Jonny, and Charlotte’s parents, Lucinda and Howard.

Charlotte followed Jonny off to college, and at the start of the story, they are hosting a dinner party in her dorm room for her parents. The gathering doesn’t go quite as anyone expected, especially once the parents begin to wonder whether the young people have moved beyond friendship.

“What is the relationship between love and sex?” Doran asks. The play “is exploring a friendship that is trying to figure out whether it should have a sexual dynamic, and it’s dealing with a lead character, Charlotte, who is very uncertain about her sexuality.”

As Charlotte delves ever more adventurously into those feelings, she sets off a chain reaction in those around her.

Ritchie says the play reflects what’s “happening in our country right now. The classic construct of a family is changing, and this play addresses that very directly and in a very humorous way.”

André Bishop, Lincoln Center Theater’s producing artistic director, credits Doran with “intelligence, social awareness, wit and a deep and tender heart.”

The New York reviews, however, were mixed. Joe Dziemianowicz in the New York Daily News said “the story alternately entertains and frustrates,” and Jesse Green in New York magazine found the play “engrossing in theory, a botch in practice,” but the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood said it’s “packed with humanity.”

Doran credits her family with her early development as a writer. Her parents are Susan Doran, a historian who has written extensively about the Elizabethan era, and Alan, an economist who specializes in the developing world.

“My father read to me a lot, and he did really good voices,” the younger Doran says. “It was a huge part of my life.

“I naturally wrote. It was very intuitive, very instinctual — little poems, little plays.”

Her parents restricted her access to television and films, but that merely fueled her inquisitiveness.

“We had only about three videos, which I would watch again and again and again, and I would learn something new each time.”

A great uncle was managing director of the London Palladium when she was young. “I was given access backstage,” she says. “I met actors, and I really fell in love with that world. … I got to see the same show again and again. If you’ve seen ‘Barnum’ 23 times, you start to understand how a show is put together.”

Doran studied English literature at Cambridge, where she became involved with the Footlights, a hotbed for comedy.

“I knew all these really funny, brilliant people that had come out of that and were now living together in a really dirty flat in London trying to write, and I joined them,” she says. “My first professional work was writing for what became their TV shows.”

Those colleagues were the writer-performers Robert Webb and David Mitchell. The show was their sketch-comedy program “Bruiser” on BBC Two.

A lifelong fan of the States, Doran landed a Fulbright in 2000 to study at Columbia University, where she fell in love with writing for the theater, then landed a coveted spot in Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, coached by Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang.

Until now, Southern California has caught just glimpses of Doran’s work. South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa commissioned her to write “Ben and the Magic Paintbrush,” presented as part of its Theatre for Young Audiences program in 2010, and “Kin” played at little Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills in 2013.

Reflecting on “The Mystery of Love & Sex,” Doran says: “I realize now it’s no coincidence that this is the play I wrote after my son was born, because I think that by becoming a parent, it allowed me to look on my own childhood from a completely fresh perspective, with a degree of distance and amusement and compassion. … And it also allowed me to look at the experience of being a parent from a completely different perspective.”

Another factor: “I had had a rift with a very dear friend of mine. And part of me was so confused that I could feel such intense mourning for a relationship that was not my marriage.”

The upshot, she says, is love. “It is a play that explores all different types of love.”

Christian Vesper VRP

Cory
Christian Vesper
 
Christian Vesper Joins FremantleMedia Global Drama
Christian Vesper is is the executive vice president and creative director of global drama at FremantleMedia.

As a SundanceTV veteran for over 14 years, Christian Vesper oversaw all international projects for the network, bringing the best of the world’s dramas to the U.S. Most recently, he spearheaded premier co-production partnerships for SundanceTV for two highly anticipated series: The Last Panthers, with Sky Atlantic and CANAL+, and Rebellion, with Zodiak Rights, RTÉ and Touchpaper TV.

Prior to his most recent role at SundanceTV, which he assumed in 2015, Vesper was senior vice president of scripted development and current programming, responsible for sourcing and developing original scripted projects for the network. He was instrumental in the development and production of the first three seasons of Peabody Award-winning Rectify, created by Ray McKinnon and executive produced by Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein, and the first season of the forthcoming Hap and Leonard, starring James Purefoy, Michael Kenneth Williams and Christina Hendricks. He also oversaw the much-buzzed about mini-series Top of the Lake, written and directed by Jane Campion, co-produced with the BBC and starring Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter.

Before that, Vesper was senior vice president, scripted programming, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of SundanceTV’s programming and development. In addition, he played key roles in the acquisitions and development of the network’s original mini-series, including Golden Globe®-winning Carlos and the critically acclaimed Appropriate Adult and Restless.

Prior to that, Vesper served as director of acquisitions, programming and scheduling at SundanceTV, where he helped launch the acquisitions group, created the network’s DocDay programming destination and developed the 2003 Sundance Film Series, an initiative to acquire features that were released theatrically under SundanceTV’s guidance.

Additionally, Vesper has previously been involved in the acquisition of hundreds of titles for IFC and SundanceTV. Acquisitions for SundanceTV have included: Jean Xavier de Lestrade’s documentary The Staircase, series such as Slings and Arrows, Signe Chanel, City of Men and The Nominees, as well as films such as Loic Pringent’s Marc Jacobs, Michael Winterbottom’s In This World and La Vie En Rose and Peter Bogdonavich’s Runnin’ Down a Dream. IFC acquisitions have included series such as The Jon Dore Show, Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks and the original horror seriesDead Set for IFC. Vesper was also executive producer of David Cross’ The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

Before joining SundanceTV in 2001, Vesper served as director of programming at HBO, buying independent films and documentaries for both HBO and Cinemax. Prior to HBO, he was vice president of business development at the entertainment industry start-up iFilm, acting as the liaison between the company founders and the film industry. Earlier in his career, Vesper served for six years as director of business and legal affairs at October Films andUSA Films, working on acquisitions, production, as well as October’s rapid corporate expansion and subsequent mergers. He began his career as a lawyer at the Wall Street law firm Brown & Wood in 1993.

Vesper earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley.

Filmography:

Rebellion Executive Producer 2016

Restless Executive Producer 2012
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret Executive Producer 2009 –
In the Media:
Christian Vesper Joins FremantleMedia Global Drama | Variety | May 16, 2016
Sundance TV veteran Christian Vesper has joined FremantleMedia as executive vice president, creative director of global drama.

Vesper, who ankled Sundance TV in January after 14 years at the network, will report to FremantleMedia’s director of global drama Sarah Doole, while maintaining a base in both London and New York.

In the new role, he will work closely with FremantleMedia’s production companies as a development partner with a focus on bolstering the international scripted development slate. He will also cultivate his own projects within the company and will have the platform to connect leading international writers, producers, directors and actors with FremantleMedia’s production teams to develop scripted programming of the highest calibre.

“I’ve been a fan of Sarah Doole and the FremantleMedia team for quite some time,” said Vesper. “I’m impressed by what they’ve done in the drama space to date and can’t wait to continue this work with them. FremantleMedia has real global ambition with some of the best creative talent in the business around the world and I look forward to helping bring FremantleMedia’s vision for drama to global broadcasters and audiences.”

Doole added: “It’s a real coup to have Christian join FremantleMedia’s global drama team. He is one of the most creative and editorially talented drama executives working in the business today, with a contact book that is brimming with the industry’s best-known and most-respected names. I’m thrilled that he’s joining us and know that he will begin his brilliant experience to the role, helping us to build our international drama portfolio even further.”

During his time at Sundance TV, Vesper was responsible for overseeing all international projects for the network, spearheading premier co-production partnerships for Sundance TV. His credits include “The Last Panthers,” with Sky Atlantic and Canal+, “Rebellion” with Zodiak Rights, RTE and Touchpaper TV, “The A Word” with BBC One and Keshet and the critically acclaimed “Deutschland 83” with UFA Fiction and FremantleMedia.

He previously held roles at HBO, entertainment industry start-up iFilm, October Films and USA Films.

Vesper’s hire highlights FremantleMedia’s ambition to grow its in-house scripted activity. The company creates, produces and distributes programs such as “Idols,” “Got Talent” and “The X-Factor” (produced with Syco) and “Deutschland 83,” “Neighbors” and “Grand Designs.”

Sundance SVP Christian Vesper To Depart | Deadline | Jan 26, 2016
Christian Vesper, a 15-year SundanceTV veteran, is leaving the network this month.

Vesper most recently served as SVP, International Programming, Development, Acquisitions & Co-Productions, a position he was named to last year. He previously worked as SVP and VP Scripted Development and Current and director of acquisitions, programming and scheduling. Over the years, Vesper played a major role in the development and production of such SundanceTV shows as Carlos, The Honorable Woman, Top of the Lake, Rectify (which started at AMC before moving to SundanceTV), Babylon and The Returned. He also was executive producer of David Cross’ The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret for sister channel IFC. Upcoming SunanceTV programs that Vesper worked on include Hap and Leonard, The Last Panthers, Rebellion and The A-Word.

Vesper’s departure was confirmed to Deadline by AMC Networks, which last year realigned the AMC and SundanceTV networks under AMC president and general manager Charlie Collier.

Before joining SundanceTV in 2001, Vesper served as director of programming at HBO, buying independent films and documentaries for both HBO and Cinemax.

Steve Joe, Rob Sudduth, Joshua Kirby VRP

Cory
Steve Joe 

 
Steve Joe is a Chinese American television producer and writer.
He began his career as a staff writer on the sitcom Veronica’s Closet in 1997, later becoming a story editor on Mad About You going on to write the episode “Win a Free Car” in 1999. His producing and writing credits include The Tracy Morgan Show, Rodney, That ’70s Show, Notes from the Underbelly, True Jackson, VP, Hot in Cleveland, Oh, Grow Up, Tucker and That ’80s Show. Much of his work prior to the second season of True Jackson, VP was with fellow writer and producer Greg Schaffer; they parted ways in 2009.

Filmography:
Big Sexy Writer In Development
Kyle’s Law Co-Executive Producer 2016 –
Mike & Molly Writer, Consulting Producer 2016
The Exes Writer, Co-Executive Producer 2013 – 2015
Lab Rats Writer 2015
Hot in Cleveland Writer, Co-Executive Producer 2011 – 2014
True Jackson, VP Writer, Co-Executive Producer 2009 – 2011
Notes from the Underbelly Writer, Co-Executive Producer 2007 – 2010
Single with Parents Co-Executive Producer 2008
That 70s Show Writer, Supervising Producer 2005 – 2006
Rodney Writer, Producer 2004 – 2005
The Tracy Morgan Show Writer, Producer 2003 – 2004
That 80s Show Writer, Co-Producer 2002
Tucker Writer, Co-Producer 2000 – 2001
Oh, Grow Up Writer 1999
Mad About You Writer 1998 – 1999
Veronica’s ClosetWriter1997 – 1998
—————
Rob (Robert) Sudduth 


 
Writing Filmography:
Telenovela Writer 2015
Red Band Society Writer 2014 – 2015
The Crazy Ones Writer 2013 – 2014
The New Normal Writer 2012
GCB Writer 2012
Acting Filmography:
Desperate Housewives 2009
Everybody Hates Chris 2009
Veronica Mars 2007
The Young and the Restless 2006
Alias 2003
Port Charles 2003
Felicity 2002
In the Media:

Latinos in the Writers Room: Q&A with Rob Sudduth of FOX’s ‘Red Band Society’ | National Hispanic Media Coalition
Rob Sudduth, a 2008 graduate of the NHMC Television Writers Program, is Executive Story Editor on FOX’s upcoming comedy-drama series Red Band Society.

Born and raised in Texas, Rob says he’s always carried along his small town roots wherever his journey has taken him. Upon graduating from Notre Dame, he spent several years acting in New York. He then went to Los Angeles, and did some commercials — but after being accepted into the NHMC TV Writers Program, he officially abandoned his headshot for his laptop. His first feature, Going to Gunn, won Best Comedy in the Page International Screenwriting Awards, and he has since written for GCB, The New Normal, The Crazy Ones, and currently Red Band Society.

Rob took some time to speak with NHMC about his journey as a writer, how the NHMC TV Writers Program helped his career, and to send a message to aspiring Latino television writers.

NHMC: What’s it like in the writers room?

RS: It’s a mixture of chaos and collaboration. There is constant pitching and shaping of story ideas, character arcs, themes. Your job as a writer is to jump in that hamster wheel, pitch when you can, listen even more and make sure you’re always driving the room forward. Most people are shocked to find out how such little writing actually happens inside the room.

NHMC: What is your favorite thing about working in the writers room?

RS: Dirty jokes and cupcakes from visitors.

NHMC: How did the NHMC TV Writers Program help you?

RS: In that it was a “mock” writer’s room, we had to pitch, write and table read our episodes, so it was a good first step in preparing for the real thing.

NHMC: What message or advice do you have for aspiring Latino TV writers?

RS: Hone your voice. Forget about convention. Don’t let someone talk you out of an idea because it’s “too out there.” Safe scripts suck and they will not get you noticed. Also, network. Friends get friends jobs.

NHMC: Why do you think it’s important for more Latinos to be in the writers room?

RS: I see it more as an individual thing. Being Latino means something different to everyone. To me it’s the loud family I love, the religion I shunned, enchiladas for Christmas, my grandpa feeding cows. All of these parts of me that define my  experience of being a Latino — I bring to the room and (hopefully) bring to stories and characters. My hope is that  more Latinos are given the opportunities to do the same.

Red Band Society premieres Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 9/8 central on FOX.
—————

This was the only Josh Kirby I could find online, but there were very few writing credits – it’s possible this is not the right one. I could not find any reference to his partner Jon. If you have a last name for him, I might be able to dig something up. 
Josh Kirby
 
Writing/Producing Filmography
Camp-Off Writer, Producer 2014
Reporting Live Writer 2013
Cedar Sequoia International Associate Producer 2013 – 2014
High School, I Hate You Writer 2012
 
Acting Filmography
Code Black 2015
Camp-Off 2014
Reporting Live 2013
Mad Men 2013
Sketchy 2012
Frat House Musical 2012
Degeullo 2009
The Greatest American Hero 2008

Sam Laybourne VRP

Cory
Sam Laybourne 
 
Sam Laybourne 2
Filmography:
Rehab Writer In Development
Grandfathered Writer, Co-Executive Producer 2015 – 2016
Manhattan Love Story Writer, Consulting Producer 2014
The Michael J. Fox Show Writer, Executive Producer 2013 – 2014
Cougar Town Writer, Producer 2009 – 2012
Worst Week Writer 2008 – 2009
Aliens in America Writer 2007 – 2008
The Loop Writer 2007
Arrested Development Writer 2005
Scout’s Safari Writer 2003
Agency: UTA
Twitter (1,632 followers): https://twitter.com/Samlaybourne
In the Media:
Sam Laybourne Closes Overall Deal With ABC Studios | Deadline | May 14, 2015

Sam Laybourne has closed a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios, where he will supervise and develop new projects for the studio.

Laybourne co-created, wrote and executive produced NBC’s The Michael J. Fox Show, which aired last year. His other credits include ABC’s Cougar Town, Fox’s Arrested Development, The CW’s Aliens In America and NBC’s Animal Practice. Laybourne also sold comedy project Juvie to ABC last year.

He is repped by UTA and Myman Greenspan.

The Story Lab VRP

Cory

The Story Lab

 
In Their Own Words
Our mission is to become the market leading producers of innovative premium entertainment that attracts viewers, media owners and advertisers across territories, platforms and devices.

We have a formula for doing that and the clue is in our name.

We are The Story Lab.

The Story
We combine data and editorial talent to identify the right stories, storytellers and content formats for some of the most innovative brands in the world.

The Lab
We work with forward thinking production, media and entertainment companies to fund, produce and distribute premium content that travels.

Being part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, we combine our marketing and commercial expertise to innovate the supply chain of storytelling through four Story Lab products.

Content Investment
Original Content
Content Partnerships
Content Strategy
Global Office: 10 Triton St, Regent’s Place, London, NW1 3BF
Santa Monica Office: 2700 Pennsylvania Ave, 2nd Floor, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Founded: 2012
Size: 201 – 500
Twitter (1,107 followers): https://twitter.com/thestorylab
Partial Client List:
Casio
Chevrolet
Microsoft
Ninja Warrior UK
Yo-Kai Watch
Toyota
Traveling with Tim
Wayward Pines
The Walking Dead 
NetCom
Greymatter Entertainment
Intersnack
Budweiser
Mastercard
Chivas
Terminator: Genisys 
In the Media:
The Story Lab and Dentsu Inc. acquire European format rights for TBS’s Sasuke/Ninja Warrior | Press Release | Apr 13, 2015

Dentsu Aegis Network’s specialist content business, The Story Lab, today announces that with Dentsu Inc., it will manage all European format sales and brand partnerships for TBS’s leading sports entertainment programme, Sasuke, also known as Ninja Warrior, following the agreement by its parent company, Dentsu Inc. and TBS, to enter into a format rights agreement for two years.

Under the terms of the agreement Dentsu Inc. will acquire rights to the format in Europe (excluding Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland) with The Story Lab building on the popularity and momentum the format currently enjoys around the world.

Sasuke / Ninja Warrior is a highly successful sports entertainment programme that was first broadcast in 1997. In the programme, contestants, including Olympians and athletes from all works of life, challenge the world’s toughest obstacle course. To date more than 3,000 contestants have challenged the course and only three have successfully conquered all four stages. The US version of Sasuke, known as American Ninja Warrior, is entering its seventh season on NBC this summer.

Sasuke has been broadcast in 157 countries and territories to date. Local versions of the programme have been produced in the US, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sweden; with production currently ongoing in Turkey and Vietnam.  The format has most recently been sold to the UK commercial broadcaster ITV and went on air last weekend.

The Story Lab Taps Lisa Eisenpresser, Shannon Pruitt to Lead Agency | AdWeek | June 2, 2014 

The Dentsu Aegis Network’s branded content agency, The Story Lab, has two new leaders. Lisa Eisenpresser, co-founder and head of development, and Shannon Pruitt, evp of strategy and brand partnership, have taken the reins from Angela Courtin, co-founder and president.

Eisenpresser and Pruitt will serve as co-leads; Courtin is stepping down to focus on her role as president of Dentsu Aegis in the U.S.

Eisenpresser co-founded The Story Lab with Courtin in January 2013. “This is my first agency gig; I’m not an agency person,” Eisenpresser told Adweek. “My talent is my ability to bring in writers, directors, producers, thought leaders, people from the creative community that can be plugged into branded entertainment projects.”

Pruitt worked as a consultant for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based agency before joining it in January. “I come from a background of brands, agency and content owners,” said Pruitt. “I have a fundamental understanding of how brands can strategically leverage content to drive business results. Together with Lisa, we’re able to put together the business package in a robust way.”

Eisenpresser and Pruitt will be responsible for working with brands to create content, using the agency’s data and insight, in innovative ways.

The shop also added seven new hires: John Bernardo, vp of brand partnerships and business; Michelle Rutkowski, vp of brand partnerships; Travis Freeman, director of social media; Jennifer Han, senior director of strategy and brand partnerships; Caitlin McGinty, development executive; Kerry Doyle, svp of global content for GM; and Susanne Bentley, vp of strategy and brand partnerships.

In the next three or four weeks the agency expects to add additional staffers to work on Microsoft, since the tech giant recently decided to split its business between Dentsu and IPG. The Story Lab currently has 25 employees.

The Story Lab has worked on content partnerships like Chivas and Esquire’s “Brotherhood” as well as Glenlivet’s “Single Stories.” This summer, Tru TV will air Motor City Masters, a 10-episode reality show from Chevrolet to find America’s next great car designer.

Andrea Lim VRP

Cory
 

Andrea Lim is Digital Communications Manager for Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., with responsibilities to strategize and oversee execution of digital initiatives to reach new audience segments. Lim is instrumental in moving consumers with enriching and relevant content that creates brand awareness and purchase intent to drive success on core business goals utilizing digital and social media platforms. She collaborates with key stakeholders across the Lexus division and manages a team that develops strategic plans and digital objectives; creates innovative Lexus content; identifies digital solutions according to the business environment and measures performance against Lexus goals and industry-wide standards.

Lim has held various other positions within Lexus, previously as the Engagement Marketing Manager, she was principally responsible for creating and piloting a boutique gallery concept in New York while coordinating activities related to a global Design award, executing national fashion programs and building Lexus’ credentials as a leader in design and environmental stewardship.

Prior to joining Lexus, she was a founding member of Scion, a Toyota division targeted at younger consumers. As Scion’s advertising and media manager, Lim championed consumer research, strategy, advertising campaign development and media planning. While with Scion, the brand launched and achieved tremendous sales growth and awards for creative excellence.

Lim’s expertise spans over 16 years in marketing and customer service. She currently is based in Torrance, California where she enjoys running an annual half marathon and traveling.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealim1

Meet K/ller, Winners of the 2014 CFDA/Lexus Eco-fashion Challenge | The Fashionista | Oct 30, 2014
A number of fashion industry heavy-hitters — Steven Kolb, Maria Cornejo, Mickey Boardman and Coco Rocha among them — filled up The Modern in NYC on Wednesday afternoon for a luncheon to honor the winner and runners up of the 5th annual CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion challenge.

Each year, the CFDA assembles a selection committee — this one included Julie Gilhart, Cornejo, Timo Rissanen (Parsons’ assistant professor of fashion design and sustainability), Melissa Joy Manning and more — to narrow down a pool of applicants to seven finalists. The committee then met with each one and picked one winner and two runners up based on design credibility, business acumen and eco-commitment.

Four-year-old jewelry brand K/LLER took home the top prize of $75,000, while runners up Reformation and Study NY took home $5,000 each.

While the money is a major help — I sat next to last year’s winner Natalie Chanin who said her business has grown tremendously since she won — the program’s overall mission is bigger, and the designers get that.

Brooklyn-based K/LLER designers Michael Miller and Katie Deguzman make everything in the U.S. and the majority of their jewelry is made out of 100% recycled metal. They told Fashionista that they plan to use the money to continue to grow the brand and fulfill orders (they’re already stocked at Barneys and Of a Kind), but it’s also important to them to promote the tradition of sustainability and the fact that, “you can still be a luxury fashion brand and be sustainable and be cool, it can go hand in hand,” explains Deguzman.

Of course, it’s something customers and buyers need to care about, too: “A tough thing for us is that a lot of retailers don’t give mind to the fact that [some product] is sustainable or is recycled. If the retailers are asking for it, then the customers are asking for it; it makes it so that it can be a broader thing across the fashion industry. If there’s demand, it continues on.”

Andrea Lim, Lexus’s engagement marketing manager who helped conceive of the program, says her goal is to “build the awareness for these amazing designers who are doing thoughtful, responsible creations without the sacrifice to luxury.”

She, too, stressed the importance of this domino effect: “They deserve the spotlight and hopefully the incentive that we provide can change their life because that’s going to create that domino effect.”

While there are exceptions of course, most shoppers are going to lean towards the pieces they like the most or are best able to afford, without necessarily considering how those pieces were made. For these brands to reach their true potential, sustainable fashion will have to become something that everyone — designers, buyers and shoppers alike — care about enough to seek out. Hopefully, programs like this one, and the attention they get, will help make that a reality.

Drama Republic, Ltd. VRP

Cory

Drama Republic Ltd

+44 20 7557 7990  |  8 Flitcroft St, 2nd Fl, London WC2H 8DL, UK
Drama Republic was set-up in January 2013 by long-term colleagues Greg Brenman and Roanna Benn, who had spent 18 years together at Tiger Aspect Productions. Greg says the company was “incredibly fortunate” to hit the ground running with two productions – Hugo Blick’s international drama, The Honourable Woman starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, alongside season two of My Mad Fat Diary for E4, a co-production with Greg’s old company Tiger Aspect.
In Their Own Words

Our team have exemplary writer, talent and broadcaster relationships coupled with exceptional producer expertise and a real understanding of the commercial nature of the TV business at its heart.

Our focus and passion is for the writer and we pride ourselves at putting them at the heart of what we do.

Founded: 2013
Company Size: 11 – 50

Twitter (1,687 followers): https://twitter.com/dramarepublic
Filmography
Wanderlust (TV) BBC 2016
Doctor Foster (TV) BBC 2015 –
My Mad Fat Diary (TV) E4 2014 –
The Honorable Woman (TV) BBC/SundanceTV 2014
An Inspector Calls (TV) BBC 2015
Greg Brenman
Managing Director
Greg established Drama Republic with his long-term colleague Roanna Benn in January 2013.
Their first production was Hugo Blick’s The Honourable Woman, an eight-part political thriller for BBC / SundanceTV which transmitted in the UK & around the world to great success.
In 2014, Drama Republic produced the second series of the extremely popular E4 drama My Mad Fat Diary, written by Tom Bidwell and produced in association with Tiger Aspect. In 2015, DR produced Doctor Foster, a psychological drama for BBC One by award-winning dramatist Mike Bartlett, as well as a one-off adaptation of J B Priestly’s extraordinary play, An Inspector Calls.
Before Drama Republic, Greg produced over 400 hours of popular and critically acclaimed TV drama with Tiger Aspect Productions. From Peaky Blinders, Ripper Street, Prisoners Wives, and Robin Hood right through to Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Omagh, White Girl, Kid in the Corner, Low Winter Sun and the multi BAFTA & Oscar nominated Billy Elliot, Greg spearheaded an exciting range of commercial and critical successes.
Through Drama Republic, Greg will continue to produce and develop top quality drama for the UK and around the world.
Beccy de Souza
Executive Producer
 
 
Beccy started her career as a story researcher on EastEnders before working on ITV’s hugely popular The Bill where she was a script editor for five years. She joined Tiger Aspect in 1999 where she developed and script edited several single films and serials – from both emerging and established writers (including Abi Morgan, Tony Marchant, Tony Grounds and Guy Burt).
She went on to produce/executive produce award-winning dramas including My Fragile Heart and Murder, both by Abi Morgan and the BBC 1 series Family Business by Tony Grounds. She produced Tony Marchant’s powerful single film, Recovery and co-produced single film Royal Wedding by Abi Morgan. Next was Secret Diary of a Call Girl for ITV 2, Me and My Monsters for CBBC and Tony Marchant’s Public Enemies for BBC 1. Before moving on from Tiger Aspect, Beccy executive produced Prisoners Wives by Julie Gearey for BBC1 and Love and Marriage by Stewart Harcourt for ITV.
At Drama Republic Beccy sits at the heart of the company’s development slate, with a passion for working closely with both new and emerging writing talent. She is developing several projects for all the major broadcasters, including originals, adaptations, serials and series. Most recently she developed the script for Helen Edmundson’s star-studded, multi-award nominated adaptation of An Inspector Calls for BBC 1.
In the Media:
Wanderlust is commissioned for BBC One | Drama Republic Press Release | Apr 29, 2016

Drama Republic is delighted to announce that the BBC have green-lit Wanderlust by Nick Payne, a new 6×60 mins series for BBC1.

Wanderlust is a searingly insightful and funny exploration into the relationships of a multi-generational family, looking at how we build and maintain happy relationships and asking whether lifelong monogamy is possible – or even desirable. This will be the first television series scripted by award-winning playwright Nick Payne, whose brilliant, distinctive plays have earned plaudits from around the world (Constellations, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, Elegy).

Brennan, Benn set up Drama Republic | Variety | Jan 9, 2013

U.K. TV producing duo Greg Brenman and Roanna Benn have left Tiger Aspect to set up their own shingle, Drama Republic, and have inked a first-look distribution deal with BBC Worldwide.

Brenman and Benn have been behind more than 350 hours of TV at Endemol-owned Tiger Aspect.

Their skeins include action-adventure “Robin Hood,” co-produced by BBC America, prostitution yarn “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” and school-set comedy “Teachers.” They also produced single drama “White Girl,” which won a BAFTA.

Recent shows include period crime thriller “Ripper Street,” another BBC America co-production.

Upcoming series include period thriller “Peaky Blinders,” which stars Cillian Murphy and Sam Neill. It is penned by “Eastern Promises” scribe Steven Knight, and produced with U.S. producer Caryn Mandabach (“Nurse Jackie”).

Brenman was also one of the producers on feature “Billy Elliot.”

At Drama Republic, Brenman and Benn will specialize in high-end TV drama with international appeal. In April, the U.K. will introduce a 20% tax credit for TV content with budgets in excess of £1 million ($1.6 million) an hour, which is likely to make high-end drama shingles like Drama Republic a far more lucrative proposition for investors.

The key to the success of such outfits will be access to top creative talent, which Brenman and Benn are keen to court.

“At the heart of every successful show is a strong bond between writer and producer,” Brenman said. “Having been fortunate to work with some of the U.K.’s leading writers, we will ensure that creative partnerships become the foundation of Drama Republic.”

Benn added: “Our aim is to make DR an environment where creative people — writers, producers, directors, actors — can do their best work and get the support and reward they want and deserve.”

BBC Worldwide’s Helen Jackson said: “From ‘Robin Hood’ to ‘Ripper Street,’ Greg and his team have a tremendous knack in developing shows that have international appeal.”

Bob Jacobs VRP

Cory
 
Robert Jacobs started his career in the entertainment business as a stand-up comedian in Rochester, New York in 1977.

In 1981, Jacobs joined Columbia Pictures Television Syndication as the vice president business affairs. Within six monthshe had purchased the syndication rights to “Soap” and “Benson.” After 18 months, Jacobs resigned from Columbia Pictures to start his own company, Syndivision, Inc. He later sold Syndivision to Lorimar.

In 1985, he met Bill Cosby and Carsey/Werner, the star and producers of “The Cosby Show.” History was about to be re-written. “The Cosby Show” earned a record over $1 billion in syndication revenues.

When Grant Tinker retired as the CEO of NBC shortly thereafter, he called Jacobs. Jacobs formed a partnership with Tinker and Al Neuharth, the Chairman of Gannett, Inc., owners of USA Today, to sell a syndicated television show called “USA Today: The Television Show.”

In 1993, Jacobs and Cosby got back together and, along with Carsey/Werner Productions, formed a company and produced the program “You Bet Your Life.”

In 1996, Jacobs became the president of sales for KingWorld International, the company that controls shows like “Oprah,” “Wheel of Fortune,” and Jeopardy.”

In 2003, Jacobs approached the principles of Chicken Soup For The Soul Enterprises, Inc., and worked to secure several contracts to take the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand and expand it through television, DVDs and the Internet. In 2007, he met Bill Rouhana Jr., who became his business partner and together they completed the acquisition of a significant stake in Chicken Soup for the Soul. Over the next few years Jacobs and Rouhana acquired all of the assets of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

In 2012 Jacobs decided to pursue other ventures and he sold his stake in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Currently, Jacobs is leading two start-ups and is consulting on a third.

Saffire, LLC – In Their Own Words

Saffire helps hundreds of events, venues and destinations to ignite online with the web presence they deserve. Saffire has the ability to help you manage your online marketing with a beautiful, interactive website and an integrated mobile site. Our content management system preserves your sanity and the site you create will increase revenue. We include social media, email marketing, texting and ecommerce to fuel your success. Our clients freakin’ love us and you will too!

Founded: 1998
Company Size: 11 – 50
Facebook (1,025 likes): https://www.facebook.com/TeamSaffire
Twitter (877 followers): https://twitter.com/TeamSaffire
In the Media: 

How Chicken Soup For the Soul Dramatically Expanded Its Brand | Forbes | April 28, 2011

Most brand expansions fail. As noted recently in a great article by Chunka Mui, a five-year study by Bain & Company 1,850 companies showed that only 13 percent achieved what Bain called “even a modest level of sustained and profitable growth.” The list of failures goes on and on:

  • Cisco, the maker of routers, tried moving into video cameras and failed.
  • The cement company, Blue Circle, tried moving into lawnmowers and failed.
  • Laidlaw, a school bus operator, tried using its expertise in logistics to move into ambulance services and failed.
  • Kodak thought that the chemical business was adjacent to the photography business and bought Sterling Drug for $5.1 billion; the acquisition failed.

These were all good companies with seasoned management. Yet their “adjacency” moves all failed.

How then has Chicken Soup For the Soul managed to expand its brand from inspirational books to dog food, groceries, beauty and health products, sleepwear, puzzles, movies, television and a web-based community?

Origins of Chicken Soup For the Soul

Chicken Soup For the Soul began in 1993 when motivational speakers, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, decided to incorporate 101 inspirational stories that they and other speakers used in their talks into a book. What to call the book? According to their website,

As they searched for a winning title, Jack & Mark each agreed to meditate on the subject for one hour a day. Jack visualized the image of his grandmother’s chicken soup and remembered how she told him it would cure anything. The book would have the same healing powers as that soup, but not for the body—for the soul. Thus, the now famous title was born…Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Chicken Soup for the Soul was released on June 28, 1993, and became a holiday favorite by the end of December. What drove initial interest was not media attention or celebrity endorsement, but rather word-of-mouth promotion from ordinary people around the country who bought the book and loved it. Many would return to the bookstore to buy five or ten copies for friends and family. Thanks to that groundswell of popularity, by September of 1994, Chicken Soup for the Soul was on every major bestseller list in the U.S. and Canada.

Thereafter some 250 Chicken Soup for the Soul books have been put together based on inspiring stories submitted by readers.  Today, some 500 million Chicken Soup For the Soul books have been sold.

In 2008, the founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, sold a major stake in the company to a new ownership group led by Bill Rouhana and Bob Jacobs.

Growth of the brand

In 2008, Chicken Soup For the Soul was still mainly a book selling business. Books were 90% of the profit of the company. But the firm had already begun to diversify the brand into dog food. When Rouhana and Jacobs bought the company, they were interested both in growing the book business and in the broader potential in the brand in licensing products in adjacent fields. They have since grown the book business into more than twice what it was in 2008. But the licensing business has grown even more dramatically by more than 10,000% in just three years. The book business which used to be 90% of the profit of the company, is now only about 50%.

My interview with Rouhana and Jacobs

I talked with Rouhana and Jacobs recently and asked them how they were able to accomplish this massive brand expansion into adjacent sectors.

1. It’s a brand, not a book

Rouhana and Jacobs say that their big insight was to realize that Chicken Soup For the Soul was a brand, not a book. The brand has a meaning of hope, faith and trust. It has wide recognition: according to a Harris poll, 87% of people in the U.S. have heard of Chicken Soup For the Soul and most of those understand what the brand means.

2. A step by step approach

Rouhana and Jacobs had a clue as to the potential in the brand when they saw how steadily and rapidly the dog food business was growing. The dog food licensing—every variety of dog food—had gone from zero to over 40 million pounds in only six years. The reason for the growth was the meaning that people saw in the name, Chicken Soup For the Soul. They were buying dog food that was good for the dog that they loved. It was in seeing this growth that Rouhana and Jacobs suddenly realized: “There’s a big brand space between books and dog food!” So they set out to apply the brand to those empty adjacent spaces.

It took them a while as they went into each new category to understand it and to find a place in the category that is consistent with the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand.

Puzzle book: They made a deal on a simple puzzle book, a hundred page book, about five by six inches. You would circle the words and they formed an inspirational saying. The book was put in Dollar stores and Walmart. In a very short time, it became the fastest selling puzzle book in all of those stores.

Food: Then they decided that the time was right to move into the food business. They spent several months discussing what would be the right way to do it. What would be the most appropriate products?  They interviewed a lot of licensees about what they would want to do. This whole process took about a year. They ended up signing a deal in 2009 and expanded it in 2010 to cover every consumable. It’s the biggest license they now have. It has been the main driver to take the licensing business from a small part of the business to around half the business. In food, they are talking with grocery chains about launching baby food, pasta sauce, prepared foods and soup.

Health and beauty care:  Now they are expanding into health and beauty care. They have just begun exploring partnerships with a drug store chain and private label packaging. The discussions will go on for some months before a final decision.

Movie: They have a partner, Jordan Kerner, a producer who did Fried Green Tomatoes, George of the Jungle, The Smurfs, and The Mighty Ducks. His sensibility is very much on target with the brand. They are discussing making a motion picture along the lines of “Love, Actually” with multiple story lines, with characters inspired by stories from our books, brought together for an event, and then something developing for each of those characters that would be a “Chicken Soup For the Soul moment”.

Television: Rouhana and Jacobs are also discussing the possibility of a daily syndicated talk show, which they believe is the right way to way to develop Chicken Soup For the Soul on television. After all, 40 million homes have a Chicken Soup For the Soul book in them. Several hundred thousand people have requested a story via email every day. So there is already a large following of people who identify with the brand and who understand what it stands for.

A community website: They are building a website where people will be able to go and help other people, based on their experience. Thus you may be facing an issue that you have already faced and so you have some story to share that can help someone else through the issue. The site will also help organize access to experts on issues that relate to the kind of issues that Chicken Soup For the Soul is dealing with. The site should be ready to live around the Fall.

3. Understanding the brand essence in each category

Rouhana and Jacobs are always looking for the place in a category where the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand is a good fit.

They say that the pet food licensee really taught them the way. The essence of their pet food is that it is really good for pets. It’s consistent with Chicken Soup for the Soul brand. People buy it because they want the best for their pets.

Similarly with books: 80% of the books are bought for someone else. So if you are looking for a birthday gift for your teenage niece, you go to the drugstore and buy her a copy of Chicken Soup For the Teen Soul.

The baby food is similar to the dog food. You buy it because it’s good for the baby, just as you buy the dog food because it’s good for the pet, and the gift for your teen because it’s good for them.

When Rouhana and Jacobs thought about food, they were looking for comfort food that was good for people, food that would help people be healthy. The brand is about making life better, so it had to be a high quality product. We wanted it to feel like a Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of thing.

Similarly in health and beauty products, they were looking for the brand essence in the category.  They want people to know that when they are buying a Chicken Soup for the Soul product, it’s going to be a good product, something that is good for you, something that is all natural. There’s a certain feeling of “goodness” that comes with Chicken Soup for the Soul. They want to make sure that they are always attached to that feeling.

4. Delivering high quality products that fit the brand

Moving from books to dog food to pasta sauce to beauty products presents a risk of dilution of the brand. Rouhana and Jacobs deal with this risk by thinking carefully about the category before entering it, and match the essence of the brand to the category. They spend a lot of time looking at the food business before they agreed to go into it, even though surveys showed that it was the number one category that customers wanted them to go into.

They quickly came to the area of comfort. Food is not just for sustaining the body. Sometimes you eat for other reasons. They wanted to be in that place where the impact of food was greater than just nourishment. They wanted it to be natural. They wanted it to be high quality. They wanted it to be healthy. They didn’t want it to lead to obesity. They wanted it to be good for people.

In health and beauty, they are thinking about all-natural anti-aging products that are good for your skin. The goal is to have a product that is the highest quality that they can get, and that it is consistent with the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand. They haven’t gone there yet because they are not yet sure. They are still exploring many ideas in They are still searching.

5. Continuous innovation

When Rouhana and Jacobs bought the business, they took a look at the books and decided first that value had to be brought back to the books. Some of the books only had 80 stories, rather than the 101 stories of the original book. So they made sure that every book had 101 stories again.

They redesigned the covers to make them fresher and more appealing. They had around 10,000 outlets where the books could be purchased.

Although they have already sold a lot of books internationally (500 million worldwide) their evolving international strategy is to partner with people in other countries and develop books with stories from within that country, rather than simply export books with US stories to other countries. The place where that is most advanced is India. They have an arrangement with a publisher that is part of the Tata group: they are taking ten books published in the US, but also publishing five books each year with stories from people in India. They have for instance released Chicken Soup For the Indian Soul.

6. Putting the products where the customers are

They decided to put their books where their customers are. While the book business has been consolidated dramatically, Rouhana and Jacobs found other outlets. They have expanded from around 10,000 outlets to around 30,000 outlets. That’s one reason they have been able to increase profit so dramatically. They are in all major drug store chains. They are in many major grocery chains. That’s where their customers are.

Once they understood that Chicken Soup For the Soul was a brand not a book, they could relate it to tuna fish or soup and other commodities, and show why it should be in every grocery and drug store chain.

When they went to the chains, they said: “Don’t look at it as a book.” Why would a drug store want to bring in novels that will sell for a few weeks and then you have to take them out.  They are not in the book business. Rouhana and Jacobs convinced the chains that these books are not just books: they are a commodity. It took some time. But that is the key reason the book business has expanded so rapidly. They showed people that it was a brand, not a book.

7. Small is agile

One of the keys to staying agile and innovative has been to keep the firm small. It has only has 8 full-time staff. They find that they can outsource things more efficiently than doing things themselves.

Rouhana and Jacobs seek out and use world-class partners. For instance, new Chicken Soup for the Soul titles are distributed through Simon & Schuster Inc., giving the series access to one of the industry’s largest sales forces.

8. Hard work

In retrospect, the brand expansion looks inevitable. But it hasn’t been easy. In 2008, they were confronted with the massive collapse of the retail market. A great deal of hard work was needed to convince others of the potential of the brand in that difficult environment. By proceeding carefully, step by step, and truly understanding the essence of the brand, they have achieved what few brands accomplish: a massive brand expansion. Like the books they sell, the tale is one of hope, faith and trust.