Today, Showtime Networks Inc. announced that creative executive Brendan Countee has joined the company as Vice President, Original Programming. Countee's responsibilities will include the development and creative oversight of Showtime original series. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine, President of Programming, Showtime Networks Inc., to whom he will report.
"As
Showtime continues to increase its footprint across platforms and expand our series and limited series output throughout the year, we are excited to also grow our programming department," said Levine. "Brendan brings an incredibly diverse background to the job - in comedy as a writer/ performer, as a respected development executive and with his accomplishments in the streaming world. Most importantly, he's bright, talent-friendly and passionate; qualities we truly value here at SHOWTIME."
Countee most recently served as Head of Comedy at
Hulu where he oversaw the development and production of the streaming service's comedy series including the Golden Globe®-nominated Casual from Jason Reitman and Zander Lehman, The Mindy Project,
DIFFICULT PEOPLE from Amy Poehler starring Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner, Future Man from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the Emmy®-nominated sports docu-series Behind The Mask, Hulu's first original comedy special from Robert Smigel, the Emmy-nominated Triumph The Insult Comic Dog Election Special and the popular animated series The Awesomes, created by Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker. While at Hulu, he received a Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations for his work on original series and specials.
Prior to joining Hulu, Countee worked as a writer and producer, developing half-hour comedy pilots for
ABC Studios and Twentieth Century Fox, as well a feature-length high school comedy for Chernin Entertainment. He also served as a writer and producer for Alleyoop Media where he created, co-wrote and produced branded entertainment for companies including Mike's Hard Lemonade, Beats by Dre and Microsoft. Earlier in his career, Countee was the co-founder of Handsome Donkey Productions, a production company that develops, writes and directs original comedy programming for web and television. In this role, he worked as a writer, director, producer and performer, and created comedic streaming series for
ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment, developed half-hour comedy pilots for
ABC Studios and 20th Century Fox, and created television ad campaigns and public service announcements. He began his career at
FOX Searchlight Pictures working in the Production and Development department on films that included Thank You For Smoking,
THE HILLS Have Eyes and Night Watch.
Countee is a graduate of Georgetown University. He will be based in
Showtime Networks' West Coast headquarters.
Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of
CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, and also offers
Showtime ON DEMAND®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ ON DEMAND and FLIX ON DEMAND®, and the network's authentication service
Showtime ANYTIME®.
Showtime Digital Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SNI, operates the stand-alone streaming service SHOWTIME®.
Showtime is currently available to subscribers via cable, DBS and telco providers, and as a stand-alone streaming service through Apple®, Roku®, Amazon and Google. Consumers can also subscribe to
Showtime via Hulu, Sony PlayStation® Vue and Amazon Prime Video. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks™, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel™, and offers Smithsonian Earth™ through SN Digital LLC. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a
Pay-Per-View basis through
Showtime PPV. For more information, go to www.SHO.com.
Photo Credit: Heather Ikei
