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Jeff Wachtel has firmed up his executive cabinet.
In his four-month-old role as president and chief content officer of NBCU Cable Entertainment, he has tapped producer Dawn Parouse Olmstead to lead his development team, with UCP’s Richard Rothstein to serve as head of current programming. Olmstead, a producer best known for Fox’s Prison Break, and Rothstein will report directly to Wachtel, who in his new position is focused on owning more of NBCU’s cable fare.
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“It’s a real coup for us to land a creative producer at Dawn’s level to spearhead our newly escalating effort to create and own original content. She is one of the smartest and most focused producers I’ve ever met, and she is the perfect person to take our in-house scripted studio to the next level,” said Wachtel in a statement.
He added: “With almost a dozen shows in active production, it was time to centralize the management of our existing and upcoming series. It’s a core belief that it’s not enough just to get shows on the air; our job is to get series to the critical mass of creating a long-term asset. Richard has been a key member of the team that has created one of the best series-to-success ratios in the business.”
Prior to joining UCP, Olmstead launched Original Television with Neal Moritz and Marty Adelstein. She began her career as a producer for Saturday Night Live and The Jon Stewart Show, before taking a job as vp development and original programming at MTV in 2000. For the past five years, Olmstead has had a production deal with Warner Horizon and has produced projects under her Grady Girl banner. Most recently, she served as executive producer on the Bravo/UCP pilot Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.
Rothstein is credited with managing series such as Suits, Psych, Monk and Covert Affairs for UCP. Previously, he served as senior vp cable programming at Universal Media Studios, where he supervised the development and production of cable shows, including Warehouse 13 and Caprica.
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