Jul 21, 2022

Karen Tolliver Promoted to Head of Animated Films at Netflix Melissa Cobb Shifts to Producer Position

Questions swirled yesterday after the shocking announcement that Netflix had acquired leading independent animation studio Animal Logic.

We answered as many questions as we could in our article announcing the acquisition, but an internal memo shared anonymously by Cartoon Brew provides a clearer picture of the scale of the reorganization that will accompany the acquisition.

According to Scott Stuber, Netflix's VP of Global Films, following the acquisition, the company decided to make some significant changes to its animation leadership team.

To that end, Karen Tolliver, who was just appointed VP of Animation Films this past February, has been named head of the Animation Films division, reporting directly to Stuber. With Tolliver's appointment as Head of Animated Films, Melissa Cobb will leave her position as Vice President of Animated Films and instead remain at Netflix as a producer.

Cobb, who joined Netflix in September 2017 as head of the Kids and Family division, is largely credited as the architect of building Netflix's animation studio from the ground up. Early on, her team was able to attract some of the industry's biggest talent to the studio with the promise of unprecedented creative freedom. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] We are excited to have the two of them continue to be part of the Netflix family as creative producing partners.

On the production side, I (Amy Reinhard) have made the difficult decision to eliminate the VP of Production Operations position. Tracy Balthazor (VP of Animated Film Production) and Mike Karafilis (Director of Animated Series Production) will be responsible for the production strategy and day-to-day operations of their respective businesses and will report directly to me. This change will simplify our team structure and allow us to be more agile as we continue to grow. Traci has proven to be an excellent leader and collaborator and has quickly adapted to the demands of increasing business size and scope. I am confident that her experience will make her a strong partner for Karen as she leads our animated film team. Bruce has spent the last two years putting together our animation production, managing the production pipeline, toolset, and infrastructure, while helping us launch two new animation production studios during the pandemic. Bruce will remain for the next few months to help the team make a smooth transition. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]