Toronto-based Our House Media (OHM) has expanded its operations to L.A., tapping industry veteran Matt Hanna (pictured) to lead its new office as president of OHM USA.

Hanna, who most recently served as EVP of original programming for the NBCUniversal-backed Esquire Network, will oversee development and production of OHM projects originating in the U.S. He will report to CEO Simon Lloyd and president Joe Houlihan.

The hire is part of OHM’s ongoing to strategy to expand its presence in the U.S. In May of 2016 the company opened a New York office, which is led by VP of development Justin Goldberg. Earlier this month OHM announced a number of greenlights and renewals, including the recently commissioned series Welcome to America (6 x 60 minutes) for Bravo in the U.S.

Lloyd told Playback Daily the goal of the new office is to capture more business from L.A.-based digital players such as Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, which have been ramping up their respective unscripted slates.

Prior to joining Esquire Network, where he developed unscripted series such as Friday Night Tykes, Team Ninja Warrior, Knife Fight and The Getaway, Hanna served as SVP of development at True Entertainment and head of alternative development at California-based media co BermanBraun (now Whalerock Industries). He started his TV career at VH1, where he held the role of VP of development.

Hanna told Playback Daily the L.A.-based prodco’s primary focus is finding ways to package IP in a way that separates OHM’s content in a crowded marketplace. “Our focus is on finding ideas that become priorities for whoever buys them,” he said.

Hanna has joined OHM in time for the Realscreen Summit in Washington, where the prodco is shopping a number of projects, including a significant number of formats (though the company did not disclose any of the projects on its development slate). CEO Lloyd said formats are a priority for the company going forward.

“I think formats are continuing to make a strong comeback. Five years ago it was very hard to sell a format, but now people are looking for that noisy, breakout format – [A&E Networks’] 60 Days In has really heightened people’s appetites. We definitely have more formats on our pitch slate than we have done for a long time,” he said.

OHM was one of five Canadian prodcos acquired by Kew Media in March 2017.