Chris Bosco, President of global media company Stampede Ventures, announced today that former UTA Animation head Anna Berthold-Zuk will be joining the outfit as Executive Vice President of Animation and Kids & Family.
“As we expand our footprint in the animation and kids & family space, we’re thrilled to welcome Anna Berthold-Zuk, one of the most forward-thinking minds in entertainment, to join Stampede Ventures and help our portfolio companies,” said Bosco. “She is a deeply skilled individual with an advantageous understanding of the progressively evolving sector, setting us up for further success.”
This appointment bolsters Stampede’s ability to expand its Kids & Family reach in tandem with their existing ventures, including Mo Willems’ Hidden Pigeon Company with RedBird Capital Partners and also HappyNest Entertainment, a co-venture with UTA, which Berthold-Zuk co-founded alongside Greg Silverman, Chris Bosco and Gregory McKnight. In her new role, Berthold-Zuk will work very closely with Sadaf Cohen Muncy and HappyNest and their franchise partners.
Berthold-Zuk will guide Stampede’s existing kids & family initiatives and oversee expansion in this space as she continues to build out additional creator-driven ventures aimed at launching kids & family franchises. Additionally, Berthold-Zuk will work to find ways to overcome current hurdles in the kids & family business by building out strategic ventures necessary to support the launch of said franchises in the wake of continual constriction within the industry.
“Now more than ever the kids and family sector is breaking free from conventional distribution and franchise-building norms. Stampede Ventures embraces the current industry shifts as opportunities, and as an agile independent studio, is poised to pioneer new approaches to financing and production,” said Berthold-Zuk. “The team’s innovative spirit aligns perfectly with my vision to elevate kids & family content to new heights and I’m thrilled to join a team that supports artists in launching their projects outside the confines of traditional studio systems.”
Berthold-Zuk has amassed an unique expertise on both the creative and business side of animation across film, television and digital media. Prior to joining Stampede, she was at UTA for over a decade, where she served as a Motion Picture Literary Agent and helped spearhead UTA’s foray into kids & family by establishing UTA Animation in 2017. Under her leadership, UTA Animation’s roster quadrupled in size, making it the largest roster of animation clients across all talent agencies.
Berthold-Zuk herself boasted the most extensive client list in the animation business, representing talents from some of the largest global franchises, including Joe Brumm, creator of the #1 streamed series of 2023 and global sensation Bluey; Peabody-, NAACP- and Emmy-winning creator Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins; Vampirina; Ada Twist, Scientist; Ridley Jones); Academy Award winner and animation legend Glen Keane (Tangled, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid); Alessandro Carloni (Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon); and veteran writer-turned-director Erica Rivinoja (Trolls, upcoming The Cat in the Hat). Berthold-Zuk also represented animation production studios and producers such as the award-winning Rough Draft Studios (Disenchantment, Futurama), Brad Graeber of Powerhouse Animation (Castlevania) and The Jim Henson Company.
In addition, Bethold-Zuk led business development for UTA Animation and launched multiple new services for the division, including corporate consulting, mergers & acquisitions and co- founded UTA’s kids & family content venture HappyNest, and is notably the only women to have launched a content venture for the agency. During her tenure, Berthold-Zuk established new deal structures where kids & family creators increased control and ownership, and participated in success.
In her new role, Berthold-Zuk will continue to work with a number of her UTA clients through various projects and entities now set up within the Stampede Ventures family, including influencers Paris Hilton, Jenna Bush Hager and YouTube sensation Gracie’s Corner, creators Chris Nee, Chris Viscardi and Tiffany Ford, and filmmakers Brad Graeber and Erik Benson.
