Blue Sky Studios Vet Brian Keane Joins Nickelodeon To Support ‘Ambitious Growth Plans’

Nickelodeon has hired feature animation business veteran Brian Keane to take on the newly created position of executive vice president of production and operations.

Here are the details of Keane’s hiring and other management shifts:

• Keane is joining Nickelodeon after a 20-year run at Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Rio, Horton Hears A Who, The Peanuts Movie) where his last role had been chief operating officer and executive vice president. Keane left Blue Sky Studios in 2019, the same year that Disney acquired the studio’s parent company, 21st Century Fox.
• Keane will support Nick’s “ambitious growth plans” by overseeing “plans to scale, manage and support productions across Nickelodeon series, movies and its Studio business in Burbank and New York” as well as working to “diversify and optimize the studio culture and productivity.” He will be based in New York and report to Ramsey Naito, president of Nickelodeon Animation.
• Says Keane: “I have always admired Nickelodeon’s irreverent and creator-driven spirit, and I’m so excited to be joining the studio at a time of global growth and evolution. I look forward to working with the Nick team on this transformative chapter ahead.”
• Under this new structure Angelique Yen, head of physical production, will report to Keane. Additionally, two new positions have been created reporting to Yen: Jennie Monica (top, right) has been appointed vice president, series production, and Kara Lord Piersimoni (top, left) will serve as vice president of production for Nickelodeon Movies. Monica, a 23-year Nick veteran, is currently co-executive producer on Spongebob Squarepants. Lord Piersimoni was a line producer on The Loud House and Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and prior to that, was vp of production at Guru Studios.
• Dean Hoff, Andrew Huebner, and Patty Henry-Robinson, who are all vice president, series production, will continue reporting to Yen.