Jessica Brinder joins Genius Brands in the newly created VP of international distribution role, bolstering the California prodco’s sales team. Brinder starts in the role today and will oversee global content sales of its kids shows, including Rainbow Rangers, Llama Llama and upcoming series Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten.

Reporting into CEO and chair Andy Heyward and based in Toronto, Brinder will also be responsible for distributing the new content produced under Genius Brands’ recently launched Stan Lee Universe banner. Director of international sales Lindsay Brown will now report in to Brinder. 

Before joining Genius, Brinder served as VP of business development at California producer Kickstart Entertainment (Ready Jet Go! Transformers: Rescue Bots). Prior to that, she was the senior sales manager of global distribution at Corus-owned kids prodco Nelvana (Esme & Roy, Bravest Warriors), where she managed distribution to the US, LatAm and Canada and oversaw its global VOD sales business.

Genius Brands is building up its production slate, and recently picked up the rights to more than 100 Stan Lee-created IPs from POW! Entertainment, with plans to launch around seven new projects from the roster annually. It tapped Batman producer Michael Uslan to help oversee and develop Stan Lee’s properties into consumer products and content. It’s also lining up the new 52 x 11-minute superhero preschool series Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, and in June it launched the digital Kartoon Channel, featuring more than 4,000 episodes of kids TV from its own catalogue and other producers.

In the last two years Genius Brands has also been busy growing its team, bringing on new VPs of retail development and business development to build its global reach.