Variety rounded up content creators, writers, directors, executives and talent that have made a big splash over the past year in the G-rated space. Among those Variety chatted to were Ramsey Naito, President of Animation, Nickelodeon; Niki Lopez, creator and executive producer, Santiago of the Seas; Stephanie Sperber, President, kids and family, Imagine Entertainment; and Olivier Dumont, President of family brands, Entertainment One (eOne). Check out what they revealed below!
Ramsey Naito, President of Animation, Nickelodeon
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| Photo: Courtesy of Naito |
Nickelodeon has long been one of the biggest brand-names in family TV, and with Naito now heading the animation division, the cabler has a raft of new series headed to its various platforms, from a “SpongeBob” spinoff to a Rugrats reboot, a Star Trek toon and new original properties including Middlemost Post. “We can’t reboot our legacies and other world-class IP without greenlighting our own creator-driven, artist-driven shows” Naito tells Variety, “and I think that one of the big differences between Nick now versus 20 years ago, is 20 years ago we were only making shows for linear television. … So [now] one doesn’t have to take away from the other, we can have it all.”
Niki Lopez, Creator and executive producer, Santiago of the Seas (Nick Jr.)
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| Photo: Bonnie Osborne/Nickelodeon ©2018 Viacom |
In the animated series Santiago of the Seas, plucky protagonist, Santiago Montes, an 8-year-old pirate, embarks on adventurous in the Caribbean. Lopez, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, drew on her Latinx background to create this series. “Santiago of the Seas is my love letter to Puerto Rico and an ode to the magical power of empathy within an inclusive community,” says Lopez. “It’s been amazing to see and hear how Santiago of the Seas has resonated with not just kids in the Latinx community, but with so many age groups of all different cultural backgrounds. We all want to see heroes who look like us. We want to continue showcasing how even within the Latinx community, there’s so much beauty and diversity to celebrate.”
Stephanie Sperber, President, kids and family, Imagine Entertainment
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| Photo: Courtesy of Sperber |
The first show out of the gate of Imagine’s kids and family division was the live-action kids-in-space series The Astronauts, which launched Nov. 13 on Nickelodeon. Sperber is also proud of the upcoming The Tiny Chef Show, as a big part of her mission is to “develop great content that can also be built into franchise IP,” she says. “We develop our content with a focus on thematics with a high level of specificity — always asking what the essence of the story is we’re telling and why it’s important to tell it now.”
Olivier Dumont, President of family brands, Entertainment One
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| Photo: Courtesy of Dumont |
With established series such as Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and new cartoon Ricky Zoom extremely popular among the pre-school set — to date, the show has generated $1.35 billion in retail sales of products based on its characters — eOne continues to bring high-quality family-friendly content to viewers worldwide. “Co-viewing and parent endorsement continue to be a big part of the success of the shows because very few pre-school shows are as funny for parents as they are for their pre-schoolers,” Dumont says. “The quality of the writing, with stories that are immensely relevant to pre-schoolers’ daily lives, wrapped in a beautiful colour palette and simple but very effective animation also make our shows stand out far and wide.”
In addition to Naito, Lopez, Sperber and Dumont, Variety also talked to actor Ken Jeong (The Casagrandes, Wonder Park) and former Nickelodeon executive Margie Cohn, the current President and general manager of DreamWorks Animation, as well as Diana from Kids Diana Show, Greta Thunberg
(I Am Greta) and more. Check out what they had to say on Variety.com!
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