DreamWorks hires ex-Gaumont Int’l TV CEO

DreamWorks Animation has hired former Gaumont International Television scripted supremo Katie O’Connell Marsh to lead a push into live-action television.

O’Connell Marsh (pictured) will be head of global live-action television at the Glendale, California-based studio, whose television unit has helped offset poor performance in movies in recent years.

She will begin in her post in January 2016 after leaving GIT in September. O’Connell Marsh is credited with building Gaumont’s US TV arm from scratch, having joined in 2010.

Sonar Entertainment CEO Gene Stein replaced her at GIT, which was concurrently rebranded as Gaumont Television as it restructured its TV operations under one banner.

“Television has quickly grown into one of our most successful businesses and, as the demand for kids and co-viewing content continues to rise, extending the DreamWorks Animation brand to live-action TV in a strategic and financially disciplined way will spur even further growth,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation.

“Katie’s proven track record of developing hit live-action television programming, coupled with her success in quickly building television businesses from the ground up, makes her the perfect executive to lead us into this new genre.”

DreamWorks Animation president Ann Daly added a live-action move would give the firm “yet another creative lens with which to explore our library of rich storytelling and memorable characters that have resonated with audiences for the past two decades”.

At Gaumont, O’Connell Marsh shepherded projects such as Hemlock Grove, F is for Family and Narcos for Netflix, and Hannibal for NBC, where she had previously been executive VP, drama programming. She also worked at Arrested Development and 24 producer Imagine Television.