Talent

Our team of storytellers.

Cheryl Bayer

CEO

Cheryl started her rich and exciting career in entertainment by working for such great mentors as Garry Marshall, Grant Tinker, Brandon Tartikoff and Peter Chernin. Having always been asked to do more than just casting she opened her own casting company, Cheryl Bayer Casting, where she was known for finding talent for shows such as “In Living Color”, “Baywatch”, and “Dream On.” She then worked as the Head of Talent and Development at ABC Productions from 1992 to 1994 where she worked in both comedy and drama development. During her tenure, she had a direct hand in marrying the writers and talent with shows such as, “Roseanne”, “My So Called Life”, and “Home Improvement.”  Cheryl became a packaging agent at Creative Artists Agency from 1994-1997, developing unknown talent and multiple high profile clients with successful marketing and branding campaigns across wide channels. She was Senior Vice President of Comedy at Fox from 1997-2000 where she developed over fifty scripts. At Fox was directly responsible for the success of “Malcolm in the Middle”, “That 70’s Show” and “Family Guy.”  After FOX, Cheryl saw there was a need in Children’s Original Programming and Co-Founded a Critically Acclaimed and Award Winning Children’s Business. Creative Space LLC was born. It was one of the first in Children’s Edutainment, including Live Events, Preschool  programming, Summer Day Camp to Sleep Away. If there was a way to communicate that was entertaining, engaging, unique, challenging, and age appropriate, Cheryl used that form of communication to connect to the masses. Classes became developed into TV Series and talent from The Original Cast members of STOMP to Recording Artists, and the original crew from Jackass had made an impact and a mark in programming at Creative Space. Cheryl returned to producing with several projects including an award winning civil rights documentary, “Booker's Place”, and several branded comedic content pieces for Febreeze and Google, among others. In addition, she was responsible for launching, ESPN W, one of the ESPN brands for women. Most recently, Cheryl was producing partners with Madeleine Smithberg and produced “the Gaggle”, a sketch show based on a millennial dating book for ABC digital, “Modern Farmer” based on the magazine, “Awkward Family Photos”, based on the success of the books, games and website for USA, and the Clapback for WeTV. She co-created and produced 20 episodes of a web series for Dreamworkstv.com “Cranky Carl”, featuring a chameleon who watches, and hates, viral animal videos. She actively has in development a Show called “Team Nocuous” at MTV, and has a show with Sinclair/Circa: “The Mystery Hour” which has already garnered 3 local Emmys, appeared on the cover of Adweek twice in 2016, and is premiering on The CW this fall 2017 Sunday nights at 10pm. Finally and most importantly, with Series-fest as her partners she has set up, “Supreme Tweeter” at Michael Eisner's Tornante, and “:30 Second Somebodies” with Ford.

Jamie Dixon

CTO

Jamie Dixon, a member of the Motion Picture Academy, is a leading innovator in using cutting edge technology in the field of entertainment. From innovating 3D stereo computer graphics and animation to creating digital scanning, printing and production techniques that were among the earliest stirrings of modern digital filmmaking he is always exploring what technology can add to the storytelling process. Currently, his application of character based storytelling to AR is opening up new avenues of socially immersive entertainment.  His visual effects work can be seen in on over 100 major motion pictures. Jamie’s creation of the face transitions in Michael Jackson's Black or White music video made the word “morphing” a permanent part of our cultural lexicon.

Katie O'Brien

Creative Content Officer

Harvard Grad, magna cum laude no less, has combined her love for creating  content and working with high school students. Katie soon realized no one was concerned with showing kids how to learned based on what works for them, individually. So she and Hunter co-authored a book dedicated to just that, The Straight-A Conspiracy: Your Secret Guide to Ending the Stress of School and Totally Ruling the World. She has also followed her passions of writing, directing, and performing, and has co-created a number of series for The Hub, IFC, ABC Digital, and the web. 

Hunter Maats

Creative Content Officer

Hunter is a Harvard educated writer, podcaster, entrepreneur and all over witty raconteur. He researched cancer with James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, discovering that the divide in communication between scientists and the general public stands in the way of progress. This is a topic that became the focus of his career. He founded Overqualified Tutoring, which applied the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology to help students of any age succeed. He currently co-hosts with comedian Bryan Callen the podcast, Mixed Mental Arts, reaching 250,000 downloads a month. 

Paula davidson 

Head of Business Development

Paula is a fanatic traveler, tech lover and book junkie.  After attending Loyola Law School she specialized in corporate law with an emphasis on golf course acquisition, land use issues, and real estate finance. She became interested in educational issues when she helped a Japanese language school open a campus in Los Angeles. As a mother of three, she saw a void in public education, and she became of service by being President of the PTA and a Board Member of a non-profit corporation that supported a local public school.  Paula continually created ways of looking to instill values and a meaningful education to her own kids and then the community at large.

Ken Pellegrino 

Animated Development

Ken began his animation career as a modeler for a small boutique VFX Company based in Los Angeles. His talents soon lead him to being made Lead Artist for Motorola’s New Product Release packages and he worked on projects for Absolute Vodka, T-Mobile, HP, and Disney Theme Park commercials. . He found a creative home at Hammerhead Productions as a CG Supervisor and spearheaded the effort to use new technologies to simplify animation using advanced GPU rendering technology.

Christian Aubert

App Development

Christian is an all around technological artist with a 20-year history in visual effects, computer graphics and associated software development. He set up the virtual production stage for Avatar, developed a complete asset and project production management system for Origami Digital, built rendering production pipelines for Sony Pictures Imageworks, Henson Studios, and many more. He is a skilled VR/AR artist and has automated the workflow and has built ride-film applications targeted to Oculus and GearVR for Threshold Entertainment and Pure Imagination Studios. He has also implemented real-time hair/fur on PlayStation 3. He is also lead developer of Argonaut and Bubo products for gait analysis.

Peter D. coleman

Head of Production 

Peter is an entrepreneur, digital content creator, executive, and producer of television, digital media, & independent feature film. He has a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University. Peter co-founded the digital comedy content company ‘What The Funny’ along with Marlon Wayans and Funny or Die co-founder Randy Adams.He co-produced the award winning independent feature film Cross Bronx with a cast of unknown talent who developed into stars, including Jerry Ferrara (‘Entourage’), James Badge Dale (‘The Pacific’), Max Greenfield (‘New Girl’), and Dania Ramirez (‘Heroes’). The film won numerous awards including Best HD Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Audience Award at CineVegas. Peter served as a Press Advance person for the Clinton White House on numerous domestic and international trips, traveling to more than 20 countries on 5 continents.  In that role, he worked directly with the President, First Lady and Vice President, as well at U.S. Embassy Staff, Foreign Governments, and Non-Governmental organizations.  

Alice frankston

Development Manager

After graduating The University of Arizona Alice started her career as a Production Assistant for The Blake Edwards Company. She then worked as a Casting Assistant for an ABC series starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Alice changed gears and moved to New York City to attend graduate school at St. John’s University and became a board certified Physician Assistant with a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery focus. During her years as a PA, Alice developed the marketing and managerial skills she brings to Living Popups by launching and overseeing multiple Aesthetic Medicine Clinics and Plastic Surgery practices. As parent of a young daughter, Alice coordinated many successful fund raising endeavors for her daughter’s elementary school PTA in the NYC Public School system. Alice has been amusing friends and colleagues for years with her quick wit and humor. She relocated back to Los Angeles to pursue creative aspirations.

Rob kaplan

Advisor

Rob is a Seattle business owner and investor with deep roots in technology and entertainment who started his career as an NBC Page at 30 Rock before traveling west to work production and development in half-hour comedy. In LA, he sold series scripts before deciding to balance his creative experience with a graduate degree from NYU's Stern School. He then went to work under the late Grant Tinker who mentored him. He had executive tours at CBS and later NBC where he developed and shepherded series as diverse as Survivor, Will and Grace and Baywatch. Back in SF, Rob worked in R&D for Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder) at Allen's Vulcan, Inc. He developed Quantify- an artificial intelligence system for recording absolute ratings. Rob is an experienced writer and producer. In addition to episodic for comedy for NBC, he has sold non-fiction pieces in The New Yorker and The New York Times Op-Ed page.