Private equity-backed German studio Leonine has hired Red Arrow Studios’ former group creative director Nina Etspueler to lead the fast-growing company’s entertainment interests and launch her own production label. She will join Leonine as head of entertainment development from 1 January and reports directly into CEO, Fred Kogel. Etspueler will oversee the development and cooperation of Leonine’s production brands i&u TV and Odeon Entertainment, along with any future unscripted acquisitions. The exec will also launch an as-yet unnamed production brand for Leonine, which will develop entertainment and non-fiction formats by female artists, champion female talent, and offer women “creative space in front of and behind the camera.”
Etspueler had been in her most recent role as group creative director at ProSiebenSat.1-owned Red Arrow Studios for 18 months before leaving earlier this year, having been promoted in February 2019 following the departure of chief creative officer Michael Schmidt. She first worked for ProSiebenSat.1 in 1999, originally joining as a talk-show producer, before becoming senior creative producer at Red Arrow in 2014 and EVP of creative operations in 2017.
In her most recent role, Etspueler oversaw all creative operations including global format and IP development, acquisitions and international roll-outs at Red Arrow, whose stable includes Deep State’s UK-based Endor Productions, New York’s The Circus firm Left/Right and London’s CPL Productions, responsible for Old People’s Home For Four-Year-Olds. Her exit from Red Arrow was the latest in a flurry of senior departures from the company, including former CEO James Baker, Red Arrow Studios International’s president Bo Stehmeirand acquisitions exec Alex Fraser, among others.