Former Oriental DreamWorks chief will head up the streaming giant’s creation and acquisition of series and movies for children.
Melissa Cobb has joined streaming giant Netflix as Vice President, Kids and Family, overseeing the creation and acquisition of series and films for children and families. Based in the Los Angeles office, Cobb reports to Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.
In her role, Cobb leads the content team responsible for bringing kids and family titles to Netflix members in 190 countries around the world, with an expanded focus on high quality series and event programming across the spectrum of kids and family entertainment, including both animation and live action.
“Melissa brings a wealth of experience creating and overseeing series and feature films that resonate with kids and families across the globe. No matter where they live, our members find tremendous enjoyment in our kids and family content, and I couldn’t be happier to have Melissa on board to continue expanding into new and exciting areas,” said Sarandos.
“I’m so excited to begin this next chapter with Netflix. Given the creative freedom offered here and the global audience, there’s a huge opportunity for talented creatives across the industry to create the world’s best kids and family series and features for Netflix,” said Cobb. “My goal for this team is to offer a diverse slate of great, powerful and timeless family entertainment with global appeal, and to be creator and talent friendly, while striving for the highest quality in everything we do.”
Cobb joins Netflix from DreamWorks, where most recently she was Chief Creative Officer and Head of Studio for Oriental DreamWorks. Based in Shanghai, China, she oversaw all aspects of running the studio and U.S./China collaboration including creative oversight of all projects in development and production, business strategy, production strategy and more for a slate of high quality animated feature films targeted to a global audience. She insured the green light of a first feature, Everest, slated for a global release in fall 2019 with Universal.
Prior to joining Oriental DreamWorks, Cobb served as a Producer at DreamWorks Animation, responsible for all aspects of producing animated feature films including the hugely successful and Academy Award-nominated Kung Fu Panda animated film trilogy. Before joining DreamWorks, Cobb worked at 20th Century Fox Feature Animation where she worked to put into production the animated Titan A.E. and the live-action Drew Barrymore hit feature film Ever After, and Walt Disney Pictures where she was responsible for discovering and developing live- action titles for the company, including Blank Check, Steven Sommers’ The Jungle Book, and Man of the House, starring Chevy Chase. Cobb holds an M.B.A. from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a B.S. from Stanford University.
Source: Netflix
Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.
