Vancouver studio Wind Sun Sky Entertainment has hired former Nickelodeon animation manager Antonia Gutierrez (pictured) as its first director of development.
Gutierrez’s multi-platform content remit covers animation for kids and adults, as well as Roblox games. She is also tasked with expanding Wind Sun Sky’s deal-making presence in the U.S., according to a news release.
The studio is on a mission to develop more projects on the heels of getting an investment boost last August when Toronto’s Productivity Media came on board as a minority stakeholder. The two companies have since consolidated their slates, said the release, and plan to develop new content together in the future.
Gutierrez reports to Navid McIlhargey (Broken City), who serves as head of content for both Wind Sun Sky and Productivity.
Prior to joining Wind Sun Sky, Gutierrez was manager of TV development at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Rooster Teeth, where she helped guide the prodco’s move into kids content. Before that, she worked at Nickelodeon as a manager of animation, overseeing day-to-day operations on productions including CG-animated series Wonder Park and Middle School Moguls.
Wind Sun Sky and Productivity Media have already partnered to produce TV adaptations of Roblox games Creatures of Sonaria and Twilight Daycare. They plan to collaborate on multi-platform franchises in the future, along the lines of Wind Sun Sky’s virtual summer camp IP Camp Bonkers, which launched in 2020 and now encompasses a live-action series, an app and a Roblox game.
Wind Sun Sky has also promoted CFO Susan Carmichael to CFO and VP of operations, as well as upping Krista Kelloway from VP of production to SVP of people and production, adding talent oversight to her remit.
This story originally appeared in Kidscreen