Frantic Films is boosting its development division with the appointment of three new executives to oversee factual and scripted programming, the Winnipeg outfit announced on Tuesday.

Anne-Marie Varner and Alberta Nokes will join Frantic’s Toronto office as VPs of development for factual programming. Varner was formerly head of original productions at Canwest, while Nokes has commissioned more than 500 hours of television for broadcasters such as VisionTV.

Screenwriter and playwright Melissa Kajpust joins Frantic at its Winnipeg headquarters where she has been named executive in charge of development for scripted programming. Kajpust has developed projects for Super Channel and has also worked on series for CTV, W, Slice and APTN.

Meanwhile, Rachel Low, the former president of Red Apple Productions, has a new role at Frantic as exec producer and development consultant. Frantic acquired the Toronto-based company in 2008.

The appointments are effective immediately.