AMAZON HIRES LAURA LANCASTER AS HEAD OF SERIES AS IT RESTRUCTURES LEADERSHIP

Amazon Studios announced a set of new hires and promotions as it expands its TV development team. The company has named Laura Lancaster Head of Series and promoted its head of drama Marc Resteghini to Head of Development as part of a restructure of its programming operations.

The streamer is reorganizing its leadership team to focus on the three areas of series, development, and IP and talent management with each department led by media exports set to report directly to Amazon Studios’ co-heads of TV, Vernon Sanders, and Albert Cheng. Lancaster and Resteghini will serve as two of the leading executives, while a search for ahead of IP and talent management, who will oversee big franchises and overall deals, is currently underway.

Resteghini’s promotion will see him take responsibility for development both in the US and across the world, while his current role will be taken by senior development and programming exec Kara Smith, who will report to him. Head of genre development Jon Wax, head of unscripted Chris Castallo, and head of comedy Ryan Andolina, in an expanded role, will now also report to him. Head of animation Melissa Wolfe will meanwhile now report to Andolina.

Lancaster will oversee the studio’s returning series when she officially joins on March 1. The ex-Alcon President was most recently president at Alcon Entertainment and was previously exec VP of drama programming at NBC Entertainment and senior VP of drama development at Fox. The third new position of head of IP and talent management is yet to be filled. Amazon Studios is searching for a senior executive to take up a role that focus on scaling up operations for Prime Video, IMDb TV, and other units at the company.