Joe Earley has been named President, Direct-to-Consumer, Disney Entertainment, effective immediately, it was announced today by Co-Chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden. Earley, who most recently served as president of Hulu, will lead Disney Entertainment’s streaming efforts including Disney+ and Hulu, reporting to Bergman and Walden. Earley succeeds Michael Paull, who is leaving the company after six years.
Earley joined Disney in January 2019 to oversee Disney+ marketing and operations in the leadup to its hugely successful November launch that year, adding responsibility for content curation in 2021 as the service expanded to dozens of markets worldwide. He was named President of Hulu in January 2022. In his new role, he will work closely with content teams around the company to continue to expand the company’s streaming efforts, and drive impactful and resonant programming and engagement offerings. In addition, he will continue leading Hulu until a successor is identified.
“Helping launch Disney+ was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Hulu has been inspiring and rewarding,” said Earley. “I’m incredibly grateful to Dana and Alan for their confidence and the opportunity to lead both of these incredible teams during this time of transformation across the streaming landscape.”
Earley previously served as President of The Jackal Group, leading its television, film, commercial theater and digital divisions, including productions ranging from Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to the MGM animated feature film The Addams Family. He served as a Fox executive for over two decades, joining in 1994 as a senior publicist and rising through the ranks at Fox Broadcasting to become President of Marketing & Communications and then COO of Fox Television Group. Earley began his entertainment career in production and development with producer Gale Anne Hurd and spent several years in Media Relations at HBO before moving to Fox.
A member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Producers Guild of America, Earley holds a B.A. in mass communications from UCLA.
Emerging animation and games outfit Saffronic has begun its global expansion with the hire of Los Angeles-based Kristy Scanlan as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Scanlan brings her vast experience in both animation and games to Saffronic, having previously held senior business development roles at Mainframe Studios and Technicolor.
“I am thrilled to be reuniting with many of my past colleagues from Technicolor, after accomplishing so much during our decade of collaboration, to embark on this new adventure with Saffronic,” Scanlan shared.
At Technicolor, Scanlan oversaw the business development for episodic animation and video games, growing the global games team to nearly 500 artists, and working with clients such as DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon, Disney TV Animation, Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, 2K and Warner Bros. Games. Prior to her business development roles, she spent 15+ years working in the development and production of live-action movies, longform animated content and location-based entertainment for brands like LEGO.
Scanlan is a former Co-President of Women in Animation, as well as a member of the Producers Guild of America and ASIFA Hollywood.
Studio 100 Media recently announced the appointment of Manuela Lumb and Richard Rowe as Executive Producers. This comes at a time when the company is actively adding new content to its portfolio. Both will be charged with scouting and developing new projects and IPs for kids’ series in addition to identifying partners for co-development and co-production. Building on the company’s European slate, Lumb will focus on German-speaking countries while Rowe will concentrate on English-speaking territories.
Manuela Lumb’s extensive career in commissioning and producing multi-genre high-class content includes developing and producing Germany’s most successful preschool brand “KiKAninchen” for KiKA and “Löwenzähnchen” for ZDF, as well as developing live-action series for Nickelodeon. For many years, she was a commissioning editor at SWR and WDR (part of public broadcaster ARD) responsible for the famous Show with the Mouse series. Previously, she was Head of the Children’s Department at Studio TV.Film GmbH and Head of Development at Motionworks GmbH, developing animated series such as The Adventures of Young Marco Polo and hybrid feature film Coppelia (with Submarine).
Lumb will continue her longstanding work for Cartoon Media as host, chairperson and coach at the pitching and co-production events Cartoon Forum, Cartoon Movie and Cartoon Springboard.
With a career spanning more than 20 years, Richard Rowe has amassed impressive skills in identifying, commissioning, developing, and producing internationally successful live-action and animated content such as Inspector Gadget (WarnerMedia & WildBrain), Dorg Van Dango (Nickelodeon International, Cartoon Saloon & WildBrain) and The Zoo (BBC & WildBrain).
Rowe worked for many years for the Canadian independent entertainment company WildBrain/DHX Media as Director of International Co-Productions & Acquisitions on a variety of children’s projects. Before that, he was part of the Turner Broadcasting-Team as Director of Acquisitions & Original Series, overseeing acquisitions and original series for EMEA kids’ channels.
Independent creative studio The Embassy has welcomed Steve Woo as Head of Studio. The established producer comes on board at a key time of expansion for the studio, with top tier advertising work for the likes of Academy Award winner Robert Stromberg and upcoming VFX on the Paramount/Disney+ series The SpiderWick Chronicles. In his new role, Woo will be facilitating The Embassy’s growth into Europe, with outposts in Spain and Nordic Europe coming soon.
Woo began his career producing and directing features, TV and commercials, while always holding VFX as a passion. In 2004, he started a VFX studio in Taiwan, and was later hired as Head of Studio in China by Digital Domain, helping to manage their global studios. Eventually, he moved to Digital Domain’s Vancouver studio, and more recently to Netflix-owned Scanline VFX.
Framestore’s London Advertising announced the appointment of VFX Supervisor William Laban. With over 10 years’ industry experience, the role marks a welcome return for Laban, who kick started his VFX career as a runner at Framestore, before working his way up to Technical Director, Commercials. In 2016 he joined MPC where he rose to VFX Supervisor, a role he later transferred over to The Mill.
With a host of notable projects under his belt, Laban’s creative highlights include Burberry “Open Spaces” and “Night Creatures” directed by Megaforce, Hennessy X.O “The Seven Worlds” directed by Sir Ridley Scott, John Lewis “Buster the Boxer” directed by Dougal Wilson, and BT “Broadband Nightmares” directed by The Sacred Egg.
Laban has won numerous awards, including two VES Awards, two Gold British Arrows and a Gold Cannes Lions.
