Amplify Pictures, the independent television studio behind HBO’s Emmy-winning “100 Foot Wave,” has made a pair of hires. It has tapped Rachel Eggebeen as its chief content officer and Colin King Miller as its chief operating officer. The veteran executives will take founding partnership roles alongside Amplify Pictures CEO Joe Lewis.
“It’s a time of expansion,” Lewis told Variety in an interview. “We’re growing our team and becoming more global.”
At the same time, Amplify has sold a minority stake to Great Mountain Partners. The sale values Amplify at $50 million. The funding will be used to back more production of original series of both the unscripted and scripted variety. Green Mountain Partners previous investments include the Oscar-winning film studio A24, branded content producer Rise Studios and the Vuelta Group, a European film studio.
“Amplify Pictures is one of those opportunities where the combination of a great leadership team and brilliant talent come together at the right time. We are delighted to work with the Amplify Pictures team to focus on the company’s continued growth and their vision to produce innovative and compelling stories that stand the test of time – we very much look forward to this journey,” Great Mountain Partners Co-Founder Alex Thomson said in a statement.
Launched in 2018 by Lewis, a producer of “Fleabag” and “Transparent” as well as Amazon Studios co-founder, Amplify Pictures focuses on creator-driven, independently produced series. Its business model allows it to greenlight a show without a distributor or broadcast partner in place. The company says it also allows creators and artists to have more of a stake in the profits and revenue from the shows it produces.
“We want to find a new way of getting new series into production,” Lewis said. “The business is slow, making deals is slow. We want to offer people the chance to move more quickly and to move through a pipeline more quickly.”
In 2023, Amplify Pictures is currently producing four to seven unscripted and documentary series and one scripted series. It plans to expand that number. The second season of their series “100 Foot Wave” premiered on HBO on April 16.
Eggebeen will oversee the expansion of Amplify Pictures’ content slate and team, working with writers, directors and producers in Europe, Hollywood and other regions around the globe. Brian Donahoe, Amplify Pictures’ director of development, will report to her. Based in Amsterdam, Eggebeen will also have a presence in London and Los Angeles.
“When I first sat down with Joe, we shared the same questions about where things were going,” Eggebeen says. “I’m excited about partnering with writers who have strong points of view, but I want to find new ways of working with them and getting them to share in their success.”
As COO, Miller will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at Amplify Pictures, including production, finance and legal, and alongside Lewis, will spearhead the company’s independent TV business model while exploring strategic growth areas for the business.
“I’ve felt for a while like there’s got to be a better and more efficient way to produce content and to get creatives to participate in the upside,” Miller says. “And when I talked to Joe he had very similar ideas. I’m excited to come on board and build out this company.”
Eggebeen spent the previous five years at Netflix growing their footprint throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. She was involved in some of Netflix’s biggest international hits, including “1899,” “Transatlantic,” “Unorthodox,” “Barbarians,” “Lupin,” “The Empress,” “Baby,” “The Protector,” “Ragnarok” and “How to Sell Drugs Online Fast,” and oversaw deals with Anna Winger, Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese, George Kay and Harlin Coben. Prior to Netflix, she was an executive at Fox 21, the specialty studio within 20th Century Fox TV, and Shondaland where she worked alongside Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers on projects such as “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” She began her career working in film with directors Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, and later as an executive at Paramount Vantage.
Miller most recently was the co-founder and president of This is Just a Test Media (TIJAT), where he oversaw all day-to-day operations, including production, legal and finance. In that role, he executive produced more than 250 episodes of TV for networks including Discovery, Nat Geo, A&E, History and USA. His most recent series include “Undercover Billionaire” for Discovery and “I Am Jazz” for TLC, which he executive produced for eight seasons. Miller was also production finance lead at Walt Disney Animation, where he was responsible for financial oversight on a number of the company’s films, such as “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph.” He had a stint working as an investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney’s mergers and acquisitions group.
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