Amazon’s Christina Wayne appointed MD of MBC Studios as Pete Smith departs

Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC Group has appointed Christina Wayne as managing director of its Studios production arm, with experienced media exec Pete Smith moving on from the role to pursue other ventures.

Christina Wayne

Prior to joining MBC Studios, Wayne was principal creative executive and head of Canada and Australia for Amazon Studios, a role she held since September 2019, and where she oversaw creative on scripted series across more than 20 countries.

She also presided over local original workshops across all territories, with a focus on interconnected series and formats.

A member of the Writers’ Guild of America since 1997, Wayne – who began her career in entertainment as a screenwriter and director – has also held positions with Assembly Entertainment, Cineflix Studios and AMC.

As senior VP of scripted series and miniseries for AMC, she shepherded the development and production on series including Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Broken Trail.

Smith, meanwhile, was the inaugural MD of MBC Studios when it launched in 2018, joining from Europe’s Antenna Group and building up an originals slate that included original drama series from Tony Jordan.

MBC Studios is the in-house production arm of MBC Group, a media conglomerate that operates more than 17 free-to-air satellite TV channels, two radio stations and Arabic streaming platform Shahid.

Sam Barnett, Group CEO of MBC Group, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be welcoming Christina Wayne to the role of managing director at MBC Studios. Christina brings with her a wealth of international expertise in content development and production where she has worked across a multitude of territories and languages, and led on the development of Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning series.”