There’s a new leadership structure in place at Brown Bag Films. Scholastic’s Caitlin Friedman (pictured above) is now overseeing its three studios as EVP of global production and current, while Cathal Gaffney shifts gears to head up a new R&D-focused division. 

These changes are designed to strengthen the company by ensuring its Dublin, Toronto and Bali production hubs are working together as one global team, rather than three siloed studios, Friedman tells Kidscreen. But another goal is to put Brown Bag in a better position to keep up with trends and new technologies, and expand into producing new kinds of content. 

Gaffney will keep his managing director title, and the three regional studio leads—Gillian Higgins (Dublin), Coral Schoug (Toronto) and Lily Wang (Bali)—are also remaining in place.

But the plan is to get Brown Bag working on feature films for kids and families based on a mix of Scholastic’s biggest brands and some third-party concepts. (This is new ground for the company, although the Dublin studio has worked on some shorter films in the past, like Angela’s Christmas.) It’s too early to share which Scholastic IPs have been earmarked for big-screen development, but Friedman says this will be a major strategic focus going forward. 

She also plans to set Brown Bag up to make more digital-first content and move beyond its traditional preschool roots to produce animation for older audiences.

“We are known for preschool, and that’s the bread and butter of the studios. But our team members have done features and older content and Western anime, and they’re really excited about the prospect of being able to flex those muscles again at Brown Bag,” says Friedman. “It’s really leveraging the passion and the expertise of the artists in house to expand into other formats and platforms.” 

When Scholastic acquired 9 Story Media Group (and Brown Bag) in 2024, Friedman had been working at the publishing company in TV development and production roles for more than a decade, most recently overseeing content strategy as SVP and GM of Scholastic Entertainment. But she was no stranger to Brown Bag, having previously worked with the studio on several Scholastic projects, including Eva the Owlet. 

“As the former head of development and production for Scholastic Entertainment, I have a lot of experience in YA, but more on the live-action side,” Friedman says. “So I’m taking that experience, as well as those writer and director contacts, and bringing them into animation.”

In her new EVP role, Friedman reports to both Vince Commisso (president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group) and Iole Lucchese (president of Scholastic Entertainment). On top of overseeing global production for Brown Bag’s studios, Friedman will continue developing and producing a select number of high-priority titles for Scholastic as an executive producer. These include live-action adaptations of the 39 Clues and Animorphs book series. (Streaming partners for both series are in place, but still under wraps.) 

Cathal Gaffney, who has long led growth into new tech at the studio, will now lead the new innovation-focused division BBF Labs. Images courtesy of Brown Bag Films.

Meanwhile, serving the strategy of modernizing and expanding Brown Bag’s production capabilities, Gaffney (formerly the COO of 9 Story Media Group) is taking on the leadership of a new innovation division called BBF Labs that will focus on developing pipelines and integrating new technology like AI into workflows. 

Gaffney has driven R&D at the studio for many years, including the move to adopt AI in transparent and responsible ways. He’ll now be more focused on this sort of work in his new role as chief innovation officer. Systems and tools that come out of BBF Labs will be integrated into the studios, says Friedman. One upcoming development is a CG pipeline in Toronto to complement ones that are already operational in Dublin and Bali.