Blue Ant Studios promotes Kelly to lead unscripted development in LA

Blue Ant Studios has promoted former Pilgrim Media Group exec Casey Kelly to the newly created role of VP, unscripted development.

Casey Kelly

Based in LA, Kelly will oversee all aspects of Blue Ant’s unscripted development pipeline and will produce current series through production and network delivery.

Kelly, who joined Blue Ant in March as a consulting development producer, will report to Jennifer Harkness, senior VP of unscripted content production.

She will also work alongside Laura Michalchyshyn, chief creative officer and co-president of content production, and Sam Sniderman, co-president of content production, to grow Blue Ant Studios’ unscripted slate.

Blue Ant Studios, the production division of Toronto-based Blue Ant Media, has inked several unscripted-focused agreements this year, including a multi-project development deal with Surviving R Kelly producer Tamra Simmons and a development pact with Julie Bristow’s Content Catalyst Fund.

Kelly is already heavily involved with “several upcoming priority projects,” said Blue Ant, focusing on premium documentary series for the US and Canadian markets.

Before joining Blue Ant Studios, Kelly was senior director of development at California-based prodco Pilgrim Media Group, where she developed and launched series and pilots for Discovery, Bravo, National Geographic, TLC, E!, HGTV and ABC.

Prior to that, she served as director of development at IM Global Television, focusing on global factual formats. Her CV also includes stints at The Gurin Company, Gurney Productions, BBC Worldwide (now BBC Studios) and MTV.

Current series and documentaries from Blue Ant Studios include Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell (Peacock, Sky), Canada’s Drag Race (Crave for Bell Media), Daylight (Fox), The Healing Powers of Dude (Netflix) and Hotel Paranormal (Travel Channel and T+E).