Fuzzy Door, the production company run by Seth MacFarlane (creator, Family Guy, American Dad!) and President Erica Huggins, has hired former Siri CMO Faith Sedlin as President of their new technology division, Fuzzy Door Tech. Sedlin will oversee all areas of technology development and operations including the expansion of flagship AR production visualization tool ViewScreen, which boosted production and editing for Fuzzy Door’s The Orville: New Horizons and the upcoming Ted television series.
“Faith not only understands the intricacies of technology development, but she knows how to build a business that can make a significant impact,” noted Huggins. “Technology is advancing every aspect of the entertainment business, so being at the forefront of this change with Faith and Seth is exhilarating.”
Sedlin brings over 25 years of experience building and launching numerous globally successful organizations in the consumer technology sector. At Siri, she led the definition and launch of the virtual assistant leading to the successful acquisition by Apple. Sedlin began her career as the first product manager of eBay prior to co-founding Oodle, the social classifieds platform purchased by QVC. Her efforts as co-founder and CMO grew the company from its infancy to a profitable company of 15 million users. As CMO of print-on-demand artists’ marketplace Redbubble, she scaled marketing leading up to the company’s successful IPO and led artist operations, growing the base from 50K to 400K globally. Sedlin is also active in global community lending; she served as CMO of the non-profit Kiva and currently sits on the Board of community finance platform Solo Funds.
ViewScreen was created, at the request of MacFarlane, by visual effects supervisor Brandon Fayette and software developer Gene Reddick. Together, they created a tool that allows filmmakers to visualize and animate virtual assets in real time, which has completely transformed MacFarlane’s entire production and post-production process. The AR solution’s impact is especially notable on the upcoming Ted series for Peacock, as the first show to film an animated lead character in real time. Fuzzy Door Tech is working toward other innovative visualization tools that will positively influence the filmmaking process.
“ViewScreen has been a game-changer for me, both on set and in post on The Orville and Ted,” said MacFarlane. “I’m thrilled Faith recognizes ViewScreen’s potential and will lead the Fuzzy Door Tech team in introducing and marketing Brandon and Gene’s revolutionary technology to all filmmakers. Under Faith’s leadership, this division has a lot of potential and it is something that I am very excited about.”
Sedlin commented, “When I first saw ViewScreen, I was thrilled by its ability to empower creators both big and small. I’m looking forward to building out this new division and leading Fuzzy Door Tech as we pioneer a new frontier in storytelling.”
Fuzzy Door’s television production slate includes the Emmy-nominated Hulu space adventure series, The Orville, as well as the Emmy-winning animated series Family Guy and fan-favorite American Dad!, entering their 21st and 20th seasons, respectively. In 2020, the company signed a multi-year, $200 million TV deal with Universal Studio Group, which has the company expanding the Ted franchise into a series for Peacock. The company is also producing TV adaptations of the novel All Our Wrong Todays and the dystopian sci-fi short film Skywatch. Most recently, Fuzzy Door secured the rights to The Shrouded College, the seven-book graphic novel series from Charles Soule and Will Sliney.
In the motion picture space, Fuzzy Door is producing a reimagined modern version of the Revenge of the Nerds franchise with the Lucas Bros. for 20th Century Studios, and a remake of The Naked Gun for Paramount Pictures.
