Roku’s Davis made head of comedy development at Sony Pictures TV Studios

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has appointed The Roku Channel’s head of scripted originals, Colin Davis, as exec VP of comedy development for SPT Studios.

Colin Davis

Davis will oversee development of comedies for all platforms, reporting to Jason Clodfelter, co-president of SPT Studios.

Based at the company’s Culver City lot in California, Davis joins senior VP of comedy development Jennifer Gerstenblatt, VP of animation Frank Ochoa and manager of comedy development Jackie Wertheimer.

Most recently, Davis was head of scripted originals for The Roku Channel, Roku’s free ad-supported streaming service, presiding over a slate of programming across drama, comedy and animation.

In that role, he led a team of creatives building and launching Roku’s move into original programming. Davis spearheaded the production and roll-out of successful series including the reboot of Reno 911! and also greenlit feature film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

Roku has promoted Brain Tannenbaum to fill Davis’s role on a temporary basis. Lydia Antonini, head of creative affairs, continues to oversee drama and Morgan Pichinson continues to oversee comedy for Roku Originals.

Before Roku, Davis led scripted programming for ill-fated shortform streaming service Quibi, having previously spent four years in comedy development at Turner, where he most notably championed Search Party. Davis started his television career at Fox Broadcasting Company.

SPT currently produces comedies including The Afterparty for Apple TV+ and Cobra Kai for Netflix, as well as a slate of forthcoming series including Platonic for Apple TV+, Sausage Party: Foodtopia for Amazon, Twisted Metal for Peacock, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh and Clean Slate for Freevee, and Hoagie Bros for Fox. Davis begins his new role on May 1.