Former ABC comedy head Jamila Hunter has joined Paul Lee’s independent studio Wiip on a temporary basis, Variety has learned from sources.
Hunter will fill in at Wiip until January while Nne Ebong is out on maternity leave. Hunter was most recently president of TV for Kenya Barris’ Khalabo Ink Society, but departed that job after less than a year back in August. Wiip, which stands for word.idea.imagination.production, is led by former ABC Entertainment president Lee and supported by CAA. The move reunites Hunter and Lee, with Hunter serving in various executive roles at ABC Entertainment during Lee’s tenure as president from 2010-2016. Ebong was formerly ABC’s head of drama.
Wiip declined to comment.
Hunter was promoted to senior vice president of comedy development at ABC in 2016 after having served as VP since 2011. During her time at the network, she helped shepherd hit shows such as Barris’ “Black-ish,” as well as “Fresh Off the Boat,” “The Real O’Neals,” and “Last Man Standing.” In late 2015, her role was expanded with multi-platform comedy development added to her purview, thus working with talent who develop and produce original short-form content for ABC’s app, plus collaborating with the net’s digital team on marketing and launching each digital series.
Prior to ABC, Hunter was part of the creative team that launched Oprah Winfrey’s OWN, and before that, was senior VP of alternative and digital programming at NBC. From 2005 to 2008, she worked as VP of comedy development at 20th Century Fox Television where she was responsible for developing and overseeing new live-action and animated comedies. She also held the post of VP of development and production at Bravo where she re-branded the channel and was part of the launch teams on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “Project Runway.” She began her career in entertainment at NBC in 1997.
Hunter is repped by attorney Jeanne Newman.
