Sidney Clifton Will Lead The Jim Henson Company’s Animation Efforts

The Jim Henson Company has named Sidney Clifton as its first svp of animation and mixed media. Her appointment builds on her collaboration with the company on two upcoming series, Lena! and Harriet the Spy.

Here are the details:

• Clifton will oversee the development and production of the company’s animated and live-action tv content. This includes hybrid projects and those that use the proprietary Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, which allows artists to puppeteer cg characters in real time.
• She will start in the role in January, and will report to Halle Stanford, the company’s president of television.
• In a career spanning over two decades, Clifton has produced Starz Media’s Me, Eloise, BET’s Black Panther, Cartoon Network films presented under the Stan Lee Presents banner, and the NBC holiday special The Happy Elf, among other works. She received a Primetime Emmy nomination as a producer for Cartoon Network’s Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms.
• Additionally, she is partnering with The Jim Henson Company and Rehab Entertainment for Harriet the Spy, an animated adaptation of Louise Fitzhugh’s eponymous novel, and Lena!, an animated series based on author Karen Katz’s picture book The Colors of Us. She is a producer on the former, which is bound for Apple TV+, and is leading the development of the latter.
• Aside from her work as a producer, Clifton serves as a senior consultant for Black Women Animate and as President of The Clifton House, a new Baltimore-based creative space committed to education, validation, and inspiration for under-represented writers and artists.
• Stanford said in a statement:
  

  The Jim Henson Company has greatly expanded its animation catalogue over the last decade, and Sidney is the ideal executive to further grow our slate from concept through delivery. Sidney’s fresh, unique approach to storytelling coupled with her stellar vision and deep understanding of craft will be valuable assets as we continue telling diverse and inspiring stories that have global appeal and reflect the lives and experiences of today’s audiences.