Catalina expands west coast team

Catalina Content, the Sky Studios-owned unscripted prodco led by Jeff Collins, has expanded its LA-based team by hiring three creatives.

Brent Jacoby

Brent Jacoby is joining as senior VP of development, Peter Huntley as VP of casting and Ryan Doody as manager of development.

All will report to president Collins, who set up the company in January with backing from Sky’s content arm after leaving his previous prodco, Collins Avenue.

Jacoby was most recently VP of development for Red Arrow-owned US prodco 44 Blue Productions, developing projects for HBO Max, Quibi, E!, Oxygen and CNBC. Previously, he was VP and head of development for ITV America’s Outpost Entertainment where his credits included OJ Guilty In Vegas (A&E) and Knife or Death (History).

He also had a stint as VP of development at Pilgrim Studios, where he developed Battlefish (Netflix), Dance Video Throwdown (Lifetime), Missing In Alaska (History), Fire in the Hole (Discovery) and more.

In his new role, Jacoby will develop across all unscripted genres with a major focus on talent-driven programming and formats.

Huntley will oversee all casting for the company with a focus on talent-based directives. Most recently, he developed and cast House of Ho for Lionsgate/HBO Max and Mexican Dynasties for Shed Media/Bravo.

His other casting credits include Euros of Hollywood (Bravo), Prison Wives Club (Lifetime), Hell’s Kitchen (FOX), Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian (E!), Kitchen Nightmares (Fox), The Great Food Truck Race (Food Network), Glam Masters (Lifetime) and Nanny 911 (Fox).

Finally, Doody, who previously worked with Collins at Collins Avenue Entertainment, will coordinate all development efforts. Among his credits are Metal Fear, What They Got Right (DreamWorksTV), Bake-a-Wish and #adulting with Emma Chamberlain (Snapchat).

Catalina Content has already secured more than 85 hours of programming across multiple networks and platforms and most recently premiered Killer Truth for HLN.