Monday, February 24, 2020

Nickelodeon Adds Three Senior Animation Executives

Nickelodeon is bolstering its executive team in its Animation Studio headquarters. Hired in the newly created senior positions are former Fox Animation executive Darlene Caamaño Loquet as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Nickelodeon Movies; former 20th Century Fox TV SVP casting Liz Paulson as SVP of Nickelodeon Animation Casting & Talent Development; and former Walt Disney Animation Studios executive Camille Eden as Vice President (VP) of Nickelodeon Recruiting and Talent Development. All will be based at the network's Burbank, California headquarters and will report to Ramsey Naito, Executive Vice President (EVP) of Nickelodeon Animation Studios. All three officially began in their new roles earlier this week.


“Nickelodeon Animation is focused on three vital elements to drive our business forward—building the culture, developing talent and creating great animated content for kids and families everywhere—and Darlene, Liz and Camille are the perfect leaders to bring our creative-lead mission into the future,” said Naito.

In the newly created roles, Caamaño Loquet will oversee Nickelodeon’s movie business, building and managing a slate of content for features and SVOD services. Paulson will run animation casting and talent development for the animation studio which will include development and current series productions, movies and short form content; and Eden will lead the recruitment for the animation studio, finding and placing new talent that will help develop a growing slate of series and feature productions.

Caamaño Loquet recently served as Vice President of production at Fox Animation, where she brought in and packaged several projects including National Book Award winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon, the New York Times bestselling trilogy Zita the Space Girl, as well as Eisner Award winning graphic novel Nimona, currently in production at Blue Sky Studios, on which she also served as Producer. Prior to joining Fox Animation, Caamaño Loquet served as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NALA Films, producing notable projects such as The Bling Ring; Decoding Deepak; Casa De Mi Padre; In The Valley of Elah and Dan in Real Life. She began her executive career at DreamWorks Animation/Patchwork Productions.

Paulson has spent the past 20 years in the field of casting in the television arena until leaving the studio last fall. Most recently, she served as SVP of Casting at 20th Century Fox Television, overseeing scripted and animation television projects including American Horror Story, 9-1-1, Empire, Bob’s Burgers, Bless The Harts and Fresh off the Boat, among others. Paulson began her career in the commercial landscape and is a founding partner of Mel & Liz Casting, a commercial casting company that works with a variety of high-profile television and feature directors.

Most recently, Eden oversaw the recruitment and outreach strategy at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her credits include Frozen 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Moana, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Frozen and Wreck-it Ralph. In 2004, Eden joined DreamWorks Animation on their first CG feature, Shark Tale. The following year, she transitioned from production to talent acquisitions/talent management working at Sony Pictures Imageworks recruiting for visual effects and animated features, as well as, spearheading efforts for satellite offices in Bristol, England, Albuquerque and Vancouver. In 2006, Eden joined Framestore, London to oversee recruitment for their first feature, The Tale of Despereaux, as well as, The Quantum of Solace, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Wanted.

From Animation World Network:

Nickelodeon Appoints 3 New Senior Animation Studio Executives

Darlene Caamaño Loquet, Liz Paulson, and Camille Eden join studio in newly created roles to oversee movies, casting and talent development, and recruitment.

BURBANK — Expanding its efforts to increase feature film development and production, Nickelodeon has just appointed three executives to newly created senior positions in its Burbank animation studio headquarters. The new hires include: Darlene Caamaño Loquet, named Senior Vice President of Nickelodeon Movies; Liz Paulson, named Senior Vice President of Nickelodeon Animation Casting & Talent Development; and Camille Eden, named Vice President of Nickelodeon Recruiting and Talent Development. The announcement was made today by Ramsey Naito, Executive Vice President of Nickelodeon Animation Studios, to whom the three will report.

According to Naito, “Nickelodeon Animation is focused on three vital elements to drive our business forward—building the culture, developing talent and creating great animated content for kids and families everywhere—and Darlene, Liz and Camille are the perfect leaders to bring our creative-lead mission into the future.”

Caamaño Loquet will oversee Nickelodeon’s movie business, building and managing a slate of content for features and SVOD services. Paulson will run animation casting and talent development for the animation studio, which will include development and current series productions, movies and short form content; and Eden will lead the recruitment for the animation studio, finding and placing new talent that will help develop a growing slate of series and feature productions.

Caamaño Loquet recently served as Vice President of Production at Fox Animation, where she brought in and packaged several projects including National Book Award winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon, the New York Times Bestselling trilogy Zita the Space Girl, as well as Eisner Award winning graphic novel NIMONA, currently in production at Blue Sky Studios, on which she also served as producer. Prior to joining Fox Animation, Caamaño Loquet served as President and COO of NALA Films, producing notable projects: The Bling Ring; Decoding Deepak; Casa De Mi Padre; In The Valley of Elah and Dan in Real Life. Darlene began her executive career at DreamWorks Animation / Patchwork Productions.

Paulson has spent the past 20 years in the field of casting, discovering emerging talent and aligning high-end talent in the television arena. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Casting at 20th Century Fox Television, overseeing scripted and animation television projects including; American Horror Story, 9-1-1, Empire, Bob’s Burgers, Bless The Harts and Fresh off the Boat, among others. Paulson began her career in the commercial landscape and is a founding partner of Mel & Liz Casting, a commercial casting company that works with a variety of high-profile television and feature directors. In October 2015, Variety honored Paulson as one of Hollywood’s New Leaders.

Most recently, Eden oversaw the recruitment and outreach strategy at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her credits include; Frozen 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Moana, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Frozen and Wreck-it Ralph. In 2004, Eden joined DreamWorks Animation on their first CG feature, Shark Tale. The following year, she transitioned from production to talent acquisitions/talent management working at Sony Pictures Imageworks recruiting for visual effects and animated features, as well as, spearheading efforts for satellite offices in Bristol, England, Albuquerque and Vancouver. In 2006, Eden joined Framestore, London to oversee recruitment for their first feature, The Tale of Despereaux, as well as, The Quantum of Solace, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Wanted.

Source: Nickelodeon

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From Kidscreen:

She’s All That: How Camille Eden is shaking up Nickelodeon’s hiring

The former talent acquisitions manager at Disney Animation Studios joined Nick as VP of talent and recruitment, and she has with plans to change how the media conglom thinks about hiring entirely.


Before joining Nickelodeon as its new VP of recruiting and talent development in late January, Camille Eden had spent nearly a decade at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a talent acquisition and outreach manager. There, she built a reputation for promoting diverse and inclusive hiring practices while helping staff projects like Frozen and Frozen 2, Wreck-it Ralph, Moana and Big Hero 6.

She’s done stints at Sony Pictures Imageworks (recruitment), DreamWorks (production manager) and her new home Nickelodeon (production supervisor). Her experience caught the eye of Nick, which is up plenty of projects in the wake of the Viacom and CBS’ merger and its multi-year output deal with Netflix.

Finding fresh blood for new and existing projects, teams and exec ranks falls squarely on Eden’s shoulders, and she sat with Kidscreen to talk how she landed in this role and what the rest of the kids industry should know about talent recruitment and development.

Kidscreen: How did you end up as VP of Nickelodeon recruiting and talent development?

Camille Eden: I was overseeing recruitment and outreach and school initiatives for Disney, and that was going on almost nine years, and I got an email out of the blue and from one of the recruiters at Viacom. I wasn’t really looking at the time but I thought it would be great to come in and meet with the hiring managers.

KS: Why are you the right person for this job?

CE: I’ve been doing this for awhile, and I love what I do. Whenever I meet somebody, I’m always thinking of a role that they would be great for, a person [they should be] connected to to this, [mentally] or keep this person in our rolodex because I know something is going to come up down the road.

I’ve also been doing a lot of work with diversity and inclusion and bringing new talent forward, and that was pretty important to me to be able to do that kind of work and do it for a bigger scale. With the amount of projects coming through [at Nickelodeon], I [can help] build a recruiting team, and a recruiting culture that brings new voices to the forefront.

KS: What do you mean by “recruiting culture”?

CE: When people think of recruiting, they think of one person or a team of recruiters, but I think recruiting is part of everyone’s job at a company or studio.

KS: What were the first tasks you set out doing when you started in late January?

CE: I think it’s really important to learn about the studio, the people, the culture before implementing big changes. There’s still a lot of meetings to go, but the first thing is just trying to learn and understand.

KS: What lessons did you learn at Disney that you’re going to apply to your new role?

CE: Working in companies that have a lot of creative talent, it’s not just about saying that the artists are the only creative ones. You can be creative in HR or in overhead roles, and I think listening to people and hearing what their goals are [and it's thinking through], how do you connect people with the right person or the right resource to help them in their career goal? I think that’s something I’ve learned at Disney.

KS: What are the main talent areas you’re looking to fill right now at Nickelodeon?

CE: Production, management, story and art. And then there’s probably going to be some CG roles—those are the ones that are going to be key. [I'm looking to fill positions like] storyboard artists, character designers, background painters, roles in the visual development world.

KS: What is your biggest obstacle to finding new talent right now?

CE: Everybody is looking at the same time for the same talent. There’s a high demand for storyboard artists and story in general because there are a lot of places now now creating content. So that makes it a challenge.

KS: So how do you convince talent to come work for you rather than one of those other studios?

CE: I think the studio itself is really key because it’s an amazing place to work, there’s so many projects coming and already in the works. People want an environment that is welcoming, they want to contribute, and I think we need to show off the culture of Nickelodeon when we’re meeting people or using social media, will help entice people to come here.

KS: How do you find fresh new talent?

CE: There’s an outreach component, but there’s also an element of going out, going to schools, hosting things here for them to take a look around. There’s social media, there’s tools like LinkedIn which a lot of people in recruitment will use. There’s referrals, some of the best ways to get talent is from the people who are already here. It’s just about being creative about how you reach out, and thinking strategically about tailoring your search for what you’re looking for and how you tailor that search for that specific role.

It’s combining all of those different efforts for the job and then creating a new culture here to be ahead of the game and start to proactively look for talent versus being reactive.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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More Nick: 2020 on Nickelodeon | New Shows, Specials, Events, Movies, Episodes, and More | Nick Upfront 2020!

Originally published: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 19:48 GMT.

Original source: Deadline; Additional sources: Kidscreen, Multichannel News.
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