Blink49 Studios Bolsters Business Affairs Team With Senior Hires (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran
·2 min read

Blink49 Studios has boosted its business affairs division with the hires of two seasoned executives.

Based in Los Angeles and reporting into CEO John Morayniss, Nicole Ungerman Levinsohn joins as senior VP, business and legal Affairs, responsible for the structuring, negotiation, documentation and management of Blink49 Studios’ agreements, including agreements to engage talent, acquire underlying rights, and license content. In addition, Levinsohn will implement and administer standard operating procedures for the company’s development, production and acquisitions, and manage all business-related partnerships.

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Levinsohn was previously senior VP of business and legal affairs at UPN, where she negotiated the first network deal for the WWE, as well as for “America’s Next Top Model” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Prior to that, Levinsohn was at NBC, where she was responsible for “Seinfeld,” “Mad About You” and “Frasier.”

Based in Toronto, Daphne Park joins as VP, production finance and business affairs and will report to COO Jeff Lynas and Levinsohn. Park was previously VP of business affairs at Sphere Media Toronto where she handled several films and series. Most recently, she served as a co-executive producer on drama series, “The Porter” (CBC/BET+) and co-producer on two seasons of “Sort Of” (CBC/HBO Max).

Endeavor Content-backed Blink49 launched last November with a content-first mission to partner with writers, creators, partners and talent. Since then, the Toronto-based company, which has offices in L.A. and Vancouver, has had a strong start, signing Canadian creator Sheri Elwood (“Call Me Fitz”) to a first-look deal in its inaugural talent pact last March. The company has also acquired TV adaptation rights to Canadian author Marissa Stapley’s novel “Things to Do When it’s Raining” and Canadian author Charlene Carr’s upcoming 2023 novel “Hold My Girl.” It recently signed deals with Lilly Singh’s Unicorn Island Productions and Jeff Wachtel’s Future Shack Entertainment.

Morayniss said: “I’m so thrilled to officially welcome Nicole and Daphne to the Blink49 team. With Nicole leading the charge from Los Angeles and Daphne in Toronto, we have a group of stellar executives with a broad and diverse depth of knowledge, experience and relationships covering the North American and international business, legal and production finance landscape.”

Levinsohn added: “I have admired John Morayniss as a friend and savvy business executive for decades. I am incredibly excited to be joining Blink49 in this role and look forward to working with Daphne and the rest of the talented and burgeoning team to achieve success — both above and below the 49th parallel.”

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