Daily Show’s Noah grows Day Zero team

The US production outfit set up by the host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Viacom has appointed an exec from US-based prodco Red Hour to oversee its productions.

Haroon Saleem

Haroon Saleem has been named president of production for Day Zero Productions, reporting to Noah, host of the Comedy Central talkshow.

Viacom is a partner in Day Zero Productions and holds exclusive first-look rights on all projects developed by Noah and the company across all media, including TV, feature films, digital and shortform video content.

Saleem was most recently executive VP of production at Red Hour, where he oversaw The Package for Netflix as well as the upcoming Friendsgiving for Endeavor Content.

Other credits include The Chronicles of Narnia, The Tooth Fairy, Chasing Mavericks and I Am Legend. He will also work on an adaptation of Noah’s memoir Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which is being produced in partnership with Viacom-backed Paramount Players.

Noah said Saleem’s “vision, authenticity and brilliance are the perfect attributes to help shape Day Zero into a producer of engaging and original content across all platforms except VHS.”

Saleem added: “It has never felt more necessary to create sophisticated, essential content for our global audience, especially with, and for, marginalised voices. We will be genre-agnostic, with an eye for scripted and unscripted stories across a wide range of media platforms.”