Amazon Studios Comedy Chief Joe Lewis Adds Drama Oversight, Morgan Wandell To Head International Productions
Amazon Studios has promoted head of comedy Joe Lewis to Head of Half Hour and Drama Series Development. In his expanded role, he will now oversee hour-long series development for the studio, in addition to his previous role of overseeing development of half-hour series.
Morgan Wandell, formerly Head of Drama Development, is moving to a new post of Head of International Productions. He will oversee development of original series that are sourced outside of the U.S. This includes shows such as Catastrophe, Fleabag, Britannia.
Lewis’ elevation follows strong critical success for the Amazon’s breakout Transparent as well as other shows like the Golden Globe-winning Mozart In The Jungle and recent addition One Mississippi. Nick Hall, who joined in June as Head of Comedy Development, will continue to report to Lewis.
In other Amazon Studios news, the movie division will now be known as Prime Movies. This includes all aspects of the business including production, distribution and licensing of original films. Jason Ropell, Worldwide Head of Motion Pictures, will continue in his role overseeing worldwide movie content. Bob Berney and Ted Hope will continue reporting to him.
Additionally, Brad Beale, VP TV Content Acquisition for Prime Video, will expands his role to overseeing global selection of series for individual countries and licensing television content on a local and worldwide basis.
Lewis joined Amazon Studios in 2012 as the first hire of the original TV division. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Bark, a streaming television startup, Director of Production at 20th Century Fox, and Manager of Development at Comedy Central where he was involved in the creation of hit series Tosh.0.
Former ABC Studios head of drama Wandell joined Amazon Studios in late 2013 after Amazon had ordered its first two hourlong pilots, including flagship drama Bosch. The series developed under Wandell include breakout The Man In the High Castle, Hand of God and newest Amazon original, Goliath. As SVP Drama at ABC Studios, Wandell shepherded such series as Brothers and Sisters, Ugly Betty and Criminal Minds. He segued to running Greg Berlanti’s production company while it was based at ABC Studios.
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