HBO Asia appoints new leads in originals

WarnerMedia has made two appointments in the originals team at HBO Asia, hiring National Geographic exec May-Yi Lee as the lead of development and production for unscripted and appointing Garon De Silva as lead of development and production for scripted.

May-Yi Lee

Taiwan-based Lee is an exec producer who has worked on hundreds of productions in Asia for more than 20 years. She joins HBO Asia from National Geographic where she worked across Southeast Asia, Japan and China.

Her credits include docuseries Extreme China, Jackie Chan’s Green Heroes, Cesar’s Recruit Asia and Taiwan: Island of Fish.

De Silva is one of the founding members of the HBO Asia originals team, overseeing the development of scripted projects like Dream Raider, Invisible Stories, Food Lore, Folklore, Grisse, Halfworlds season two, The Teenage Psychic and Sent. He was also co-creator and showrunner on Grace and Halfworlds season one.

Forthcoming originals at HBO Asia include documentary Traffickers: Inside the Golden Triangle, period drama Legacy, season two of horror series Folklore, Thai young adult drama Forbidden and season three of anthology series Halfworlds.

Magdalene Ew, head of content in entertainment at WarnerMedia in India, Southeast Asia and Korea, said: “As we continue to grow our team, May-Yi will be integral to our search and development of quality unscripted programming. With her rich experience and industry connections, she will be able to deliver against our considerable ambitions, especially in the documentary and reality TV genres.

“At the same time, Garon will now focus entirely on scripted originals. He is tasked with expanding our slate of original Asian scripted entertainment and leading the team that brings to life the region’s best stories.”