New Endemol Israel scripted boss has US remit

Endemol has named Gal Zaid as its director of comedy and drama in Israel.

In his new role, Zaid will oversee all Endemol Israel’s scripted output, and include working in partnership with the LA-based Endemol Studios team, Endemol North America’s scripted TV studio, to develop original scripted shows that could be remade for the US.

This comes a year after Endemol acquired a stake in Kuperman Productions and rebranded it as Endemol Israel.

Zaid was most recently director of drama at Channel 10 and before that was held the same role at Keshet. His credits include co-developing Channel 10’s Hostages, which was sold to CBS in the USA.

He also script edited and had a lead acting role in Prisoners of War, which was remade for Showtime in the US.

More recently, he has worked with Endemol Israel on the forthcoming hospital drama, The Hallway for HOT.

CEO of Endemol Israel Elad Kuperman said: “Gal is responsible for some of the most successful and exciting scripted series to come out of Israel and we are thrilled to have him join us in this key role.

“His appointment at Endemol Israel and his collaboration with our colleagues in the U.S will strongly position us to deliver outstanding scripted content for audiences here and around the world.”

Philippe Maigret, CEO, Endemol Studios, said: “Israel is a hotbed of creativity for scripted output with great potential for adaptation in the US and beyond.

“Gal is recognised in the Israeli market as being a creative entrepreneur with a capacity to deliver great storytelling that translates across all territories. As we continue to expand our growing scripted development slate, we look forward to collaborating with him to find new ideas based on scripted Israeli formats that we can adapt into content for the U.S. market that will have a strong emotional resonance.”

Endemol is pushing aggressively into scripted and push grown this part of its business by 75% in the last five years. Last week, the firm acquired international drama producer Artists Studio, producer of BBC Two’s The Fall.