CBS bolsters All Access team

Dark comedic drama Why Women Kill

The streaming service of US broadcaster CBS, CBS All Access, has appointed a new director to its original content team and promoted two existing execs.

Ashley Whitaker joins CBS All Access as director of original content, alongside Eric Pertilla who took up the same role last year.

Whitaker was most recently a creative exec at Harpo Films, where she worked in TV and film development. Working closely with Harpo and Discovery-owned OWN – the Oprah Winfrey Network – she helped develop scripted content including series Greenleaf and Ambitions.

Whitaker began her career as a production assistant for ABC Studios and as an assistant at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

Meanwhile, Danny Feldheim and Jana Steele Helman have both been upped to the roles of senior VP of original content.

Feldheim was one of the first hires for the original content team at CBS All Access, when the service launched original series in 2016. He is responsible for shepherding dramas such as Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery and The Good Fight.

Before joining CBS All Access, Feldheim worked in drama programming at Fox, prior to which he held roles at Nickelodeon and ICM.

Steele Helman joined CBS All Access as VP of original content in April this year. Since then, she has spearheaded development on series including Why Women Kill and The Twilight Zone.

Before joining CBS All Access, Steele Helman was VP of programming and development at Freeform, where she contributed to the rebrand of the network from ABC Family and oversaw the development of series such as Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger and Grown-ish.