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Samie Kim Falvey Joins Picturestart As President

Erik Feig’s Picturestart has appointed longtime TV executive Samie Kim Falvey as President. Falvey joins from Imagine Entertainment where she spent nearly four years as President and, most recently, Chairman of Television.

Reporting to Picturestart founder and CEO Erik Feig, Falvey will shepherd all efforts in scripted and unscripted content across film, television, audio and print media. She will oversee a team that includes recent Picturestart executive additions to the series side, Emily Wissink and Luke Esselen, both VP of production; Jessica Switch, Lucy Kitada, Royce Reeves-Darby, and Julia Hammer on the feature side; and Emmanuelle Stahler, VP, in audio.

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Imagine Entertainment is close to naming a new head of television, with conversations currently underway. Additionally, EVP Anna Culp, who has been responsible for Imagine Television’s Genius anthology series on Nat Geo and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol on Peacock and has been overseeing FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven, is expected to play an integral role in the new structure going forward.

Falvey joins Picturestart as the two-year-old company has been ramping up with six feature films and three TV series, including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies on Paramount+ and I Know What You Did Last Summer on Amazon, set in the past year, along with projects across digital and audio.

“Samie is an incredible storyteller and human being who excels at finding equally incredible story tellers and human beings and bringing out the best of them. We are so excited to see not only what she can bring to the robust slate we have already been putting together and making, but all the new creatives she can bring to the Picturestart family, using the full array of financing and distribution opportunities we can offer,” said Feig. “Picturestart’s mission of making stories about and for people who are figuring out who they are, where they fit in, and what they stand for, and working with creatives of all experience levels, is perfectly suited for Samie’s unique talents.”

Falvey joined Imagine in 2017 as President of Television where she oversaw all aspects of scripted TV development and production. She was upped to Chairman in 2019.

Previously, Falvey served as Chief Content Officer for M4, the premium mobile content joint venture created by Verizon and AwesomenessTV and EVP of Comedy Development and International Scripted at ABC where she led the network’s comedy department that developed such series as Modern Family, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, The Goldbergs, The Middle, American Housewife and Happy Endings. Falvey began her career at Fox Broadcasting Co. and Fox TV Studios where she spent eight years as an executive.

“I’m thrilled to join Erik and the amazing Picturestart team in these early days of building a premiere studio/production company,” Falvey said. “Erik’s exceptional track record in championing filmmakers and producing wildly successful franchises has jumpstarted Picturestart in this turbulent time. I’m eager to dive in and I wholeheartedly believe in the company’s mission – the creative culture at PS is already infectious!”

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