St. Louis-based Lion Forge Entertainment has hired three new executives to lead its development, production and distribution. 

Jonathan Abraham (pictured right), a former Guru Studio sales exec, has joined as director of global media sales. He reports to kids content producer Kirsten Newlands (pictured left), the brand new EVP of production and content partnerships, and together they’ll be running Lion Forge’s just-launched global media sales division. The division will handle international sales and distribution of the company’s owned and financed projects. 

Abraham and Newlands will be at MIPCOM/MIPJR next month, pitching animated series Iyanu and Bugtron. 

The new distribution team has a slate of animated and live-action to sell. Some of the studio’s previously announced projects in development include animated series Marley and the Family Band as well as live-action film Best Wishes and live-action series Oh My Gods. 

Before joining Lion Forge, Abraham was VP of sales and business development at Guru (True and the Rainbow Kingdom). Newlands was previously VP of kids animation at Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine shingle, and before that she was a longtime WildBrain exec, in charge of animation production. 

On the production side, Lion Forge has hired Koyalee Chanda (pictured middle) as SVP of animation to lead that department. Like Newlands, Chanda also comes from Hello Sunshine, where she was VP of kids and animation. Prior to that, she was VP of production and development at Chris Nee’s Laughing Wild (Ada Twist). 

The new execs all work under Stephanie Sperber, Lion Forge Entertainment’s president and chief content officer. 

The trio could have some new projects to produce and sell before too long—Lion Forge unveiled a deal today with Penguin Random House’s Penguin Young Readers division to develop film and TV projects based on the publisher’s titles. 

The first four books picked for development are Wannabe Farms, North Pole Ninjas, Monster Juice and The Pathfinders Society. Under the deal, Lion Forge has the rights to create a multi-title slate of animated and live-action properties. 

In the Wannabe Farms book (aimed at eight to 12s) by former Late Night With Conan O’Brien writer Brian McCann, a group of animals spend their day dreaming about what they really want to do (such as pigs aspiring to be fancy sophisticates and sheep longing to be hair stylists). Tyler Knott Gregson’s North Pole Ninjas (for kids ages three to seven) follows a team of ninja elves who use their stealth and kindness to help kids during the holidays. In the eight- to 12-skewing Monster Juice, by M.D. Payne, a kid volunteering at a retirement home discovers that the elderly residents are monsters who need his help. The Pathfinders Society, also for eight to 12s, centers on five kids who follow secret clues to discover a hidden treasure at summer camp. 

Sperber (who joined the company in March) brokered the deal, and will produce the projects that go into production with Lion Forge CEO David Steward II, Penguin Workshop president and publisher Francesco Sedita and Penguin Random House media consultant Rich Korson.