Blue Ant Media’s kids, family & YA division is taking shape following its acquisition of Thunderbird Entertainment, with a leadership restructure designed to unite its Jam Filled Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons studios and streamline business. 

As part of the changes, Lori McIndoe, president of animation studio Jam Filled Entertainment—which Blue Ant scooped up from Boat Rocker last year alongside Insight Productions and Proper Television—is departing Blue Ant. As president of the company that worked on Dino Ranch, Wylde Pak and Vida the Vet, she was “integral to the studio’s growth and success,” according to a release.  

Tori Coulthart, formerly Jam Filled’s EVP of production, is now SVP of animation and will lead Jam Filled Entertainment. 

Blue Ant Media is keeping the Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment names, but labelling them as “A Blue Ant Studios Animation Company” to avoid confusion for partners. 

As previously reported, Jennifer Twiner McCarron, formerly Thunderbird’s CEO, is leading the division as president of kids, family & YA. The team is part of Blue Ant Studios, which Matt Hornburg oversees. 

Under the new structure, the kids division will have three verticals: content development & commercial strategy; scripted & live action; and animation. 

Here are the three EVPs who will be leading those divisions:

Diane Rankin will lead content development & commercial strategy and will manage the originals and co-productions pipeline. Reporting to her is AJ Trauth (Davey & Jonesie’s Locker), who was promoted to SVP of scripted, animation & live action content. (He was previously VP of development for kids, family, YA and animation). Also on the team is Hillary Zwick Turner, SVP of scripted and live action content. 

Lindsay Macadam, who had been the president of Thunderbird’s Great Pacific Media before that label was discontinued, will lead the scripted & live action team for Blue Ant Studios. She’s responsible for shepherding projects through development to delivery, and managing buyer and partner relationships. Trauth and Zwick Turner will work with her to develop projects. 

Joel Bradley, previously president of Atomic, will oversee the animation team for Blue Ant Studios across both 2D and CG production services, co-productions and originals across preschool to adult. The animation department brings together Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment under the same umbrella. While Coulthart leads Jam Filled, Steve Grover, previously a supervising producer at Atomic Cartoons, is now SVP of animation and is leading Atomic. 

These teams will work closely with Blue Ant Rights, including EVP of kids & family brands Richard Goldsmith, who leads Blue Ant’s kids CP division.

These changes are aimed at creating a more “integrated and scalable model” so it can increase its speed and output, according to the company. 

Image courtesy of Blue Ant.