GENIUS BRANDS APPOINTS JESSICA BRINDER TO VP, INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

As Genius Brands International continues to expand with its recently established Kartoon Channel!, the company has appointed Jessica Brinder as Vice President of International Distribution. “This is an exciting time to be at Genius Brands as we continue to build our content portfolio, and I welcome Jessica to our team to help drive our content sales efforts around the world,” Genius Brands’ Chairman and CEO Andy Heyward said.

The former Corus Entertainment sales Executive will oversee global content sales from Genius Brands’ catalog of children’s programming, including flagship properties, "Rainbow Rangers" and "Llama Llama," along with the upcoming "Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and news content produced under the recently announced Stan Lee Universe banner. Brinder will be based in Toronto. Director of International Sales, Lindsay Brown, will report to her.

Brinder joins Genius Brands from Kickstart Entertainment in Canada, where she served as Vice President of Business Development. She previously worked for over five years for Corus Entertainment, most recently as a Senior Sales Manager of Global Distribution at Nelvana, managing the distribution of content in key territories around the world and overseeing the strategic direction and team of the global VOD business. “I am thrilled to work with Andy and the team at Genius Brands as we continue producing ‘content with a purpose’ for global distribution,” Brinder said. “We have a diverse catalog of enriching and entertaining programming with new original content coming down the pipeline, and I look forward to working with our broadcast and platform partners worldwide to bring our unique offerings to young audiences around the world.” 

According to Heyward, Genius Brands now holds exclusive distribution rights over the “Rainbow Rangers” series in the Western Hemisphere and plans to expand further across the globe. Its rollouts this year include that of “Llama Llama” on Netflix, “Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten” with Alibaba Group, and more.