Former ABC Creatives Brian Morewitz and Melanie Frankel to Lead Development at Kapital Entertainment
Former ABC head of drama Brian Morewitz and former ABC Signature head of comedy Melanie Frankel have joined Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment as heads of creative, TheWrap has confirmed. The two will share developmental oversight of comedy and drama projects for the company, which already has a full slate of series in the works.
Recent series from Kapital include ABC’s “A Million Little Things” and Showtime’s “The Chi.” The company, which was founded in 2009, has four new premieres this week alone: NBC comedy “American Auto” starring Ana Gasteyer debuts Tuesday; ABC limited series “Women Of the Movement” and its companion docuseries “Let the World See” both premiere Thursday, Jan. 6; and Fox comedy “Pivoting” with Ginnifer Goodwin and Maggie Q launches on Sunday, Jan. 9.
Morewitz and Frankel succeed Dana Honor, who left in November after five years at the company. Both Morewitz and Frankel have previously worked with Kaplan — Morewitz was the company’s network partner on “Women Of the Movement” and “A Million Little Things,” while Frankel was Kapital’s studio partner on “American Housewife” and “A Million Little Things.”
Kapital Entertainment has also promoted creative executives Jessie Abbott and Kevin Marco to VP, and Sean Richards, who works for Kapital’s head of business affairs Sandra Ortiz, has been promoted to VP of business affairs. The company has also brought in Evan Terrell as creative executive and Matt Conner as VP of production, who will report to head of production Michael Lohmann. Conner served as production manager on “Women of the Movement.”
“Brian and Melanie are not just amazing executives – they are also good friends, and I am beyond thrilled that they will be leading our growing creative team, which is also welcoming Evan as a member,” Kaplan said in a statement on Tuesday. “The well-deserved promotions of Jessie, Kevin and Sean are a testament to their great work, and adding Matt as the VP of Michaels production team will allow us to be even more efficient, flexible and thoughtful when making content.”
Morewitz served as senior vice president, head of drama development at ABC Entertainment for five years, and as head of drama at the network as it added series “The Good Doctor,” “Station 19,” and “The Rookie.” He joined ABC as VP of drama development in November 2004, overseeing series including “Castle,” “Revenge,” “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Nashville” and “Brothers and Sisters,” as well as the Emmy-winning “American Crime.” He left ABC in July 2021 after 17 years.
Frankel began as comedy coordinator at ABC in 2004 before moving to the studio’s comedy department from 2007-2011. She became head of comedy development for USA Network, where she developed “Playing House” and “Sirens.” She returned to ABC Studios as VP in the current department from 2015-2019 before becoming head of comedy at ABC Signature, where she developed series for Hulu, Freeform, Apple and ABC before her departure in August 2021.
Among the 10 current Kapital series are the animated Fox comedy “Housebroken,” as well as upcoming series “Black Cake” at Hulu and “Shining Vale” at Starz.
Deadline first reported the news.
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