"During her 26-year tenure at Viacom’s Nickelodeon, [she] was involved in the creation and production of some of the industry’s most successful children’s programs, including ‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’ ‘Rugrats,’ ‘iCarly’ and the Kids’ Choice Awards," reports the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog.

The article is talking about Marjorie Cohn, who has been named DreamWorks Animation’s first head of television.

The story continues, "In her new job at DreamWorks Animation, Cohn will head up a new TV team at the Glendale-based studio that will develop and produce 1,200 hours of original episodes over the next five years. This production slate will feature TV series that are based on DreamWorks’ current franchises, future films and the most popular heritage properties from Classic Media, which DreamWorks acquired last year.

"The hiring comes as DreamWorks Animation looks to lessen its dependence on animated movies by branching into the competitive world of children’s television. The studio earlier this year announced distribution deals to produce animated TV shows for the online streaming service Netflix and Germany’s Super RTL."

DreamWorks Animation Chief Operating Officer Ann Daly said in a statement: "Margie has tremendous instincts when it comes to kids programming, and we can’t wait to unleash her creative force on DreamWorks’ vast IP to bring exciting new content to families across the world,” according to the story.

The article also notes, "DreamWorks will hire several hundred people, mostly in Southern California, to work in the new television group, Daly added in an interview. ‘There is going to be a significant amount of hiring as we scale up,’ she said."

To read additional details about this story we urge you to click on the link above in our first paragraph and go to the complete L.A. Times story.

Marjorie Cohn