Tom Lieber lands expanded role amid senior reshuffle with newly installed internationals chief Nicole Clemens overseeing domestic
Amazon MGM Studios’ head of scripted series UK Tom Lieber has been handed an expanded role that will see him return to Los Angeles after less than a year.
Lieber, who moved to London in November to head up UK scripted, is to step up as head, co-production genre development and current series with additional responsibilities to spearhead the development of co-productions.
He had been heading up the domestic Amazon MGM Studios team consisting of London-based co-heads of development for UK scripted series Punit Mattoo and Gemma Brandler, and overseeing tentpoles filmed out of the UK including Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys and Fallout.
With his return to LA, the UK scripted series team will now report to newly-appointed head of international originals Nicole Clemens, who is moving to the UK.
Also landing an expanded role is head of TV development, SVoD co-productions Kara Smith. After two years in her role, she will step up as head, co-production drama, comedy development and current series.
Having developed returner The Summer I Turned Pretty and We Were Liars, she will continue to lead co-production development while working on current drama, YA and comedy, managing head of drama series Odetta Watkins and head of YA and comedy Alex Weinberger.
The pair are taking on more responsibilities after their boss, head of US SVoD TV development and series, co-productions Laura Lancaster assumed a larger role in the wake of Jennifer Salke’s departure as head of Amazon MGM Studios.
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Lancaster said: “Elevating Kara and Tom’s roles reflects our dedication to creative excellence while cultivating long running series for our audience.
“Their successful track records at Amazon, strong industry relationships, and rapport with their peers make them ideal for these expanded roles.”
Laura Lancaster’s memo in full
Fellow colleagues,
As we evolve and grow as a Television Studio, we’ve continued to focus on building an organizational structure that matches the scale of our global ambitions. I’m pleased to share several important changes on the co-production development (working with external studios) & current side that will strengthen our leadership team, enhance our operational efficiency, and better position us to manage our expanding slate of successful on-going series.
We are elevating Kara Smith to Head, Co-Production Drama, Comedy Development and Current Series. In this enhanced role, Kara will now oversee current Drama, YA, and Comedy series while maintaining her existing oversight of co-production development and Limited series. Odetta Watkins and Alex Weinberger will continue to lead the Drama series and YA & Comedy departments respectively, now reporting directly to Kara. This strategic alignment allows Kara to reunite with several signature Prime Video series she originally developed, including Reacher, Cross and more. Her extraordinary leadership and innovative vision helped craft The Better Sister and We Were Liars into must-watch series that have captured the cultural conversation. Kara’s guidance has been pivotal in many of our upcoming launches, including Scarpetta, Ride or Die, Spider: Noir, and our highly anticipated Blade Runner series, set for 2026.
Tom Lieber will also be expanding his role, adding Genre Co-Production Development to his remit in addition to Genre Series as Head, Co-Production Genre Development and Current Series. Tom’s exceptional leadership has been instrumental in shaping some of our most ambitious projects, such as The Boys universe (including spin-offs Gen V and Vought Rising), Fallout, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In this enhanced role, Tom will spearhead the development of all genre co-productions, leveraging his extensive Marvel experience to guide these world-building series. Max Taylor, who will now report directly to Tom, will continue to provide his crucial genre development expertise. To better manage these global priorities, I’ve asked Tom to relocate back to Los Angeles, after spending the last year successfully leading UK Scripted from our London Office, allowing us to centralize and scale our genre initiatives more effectively. The current UK Scripted series team will now report directly to Head of International Originals Nicole Clemens, in alignment with her move to the UK.
Elevating Kara and Tom’s roles reflects our dedication to creative excellence while cultivating long running series for our audience. Their successful track records at Amazon, strong industry relationships, and rapport with their peers make them ideal for these expanded roles. Both will continue to report directly to me as we work in close partnership with the wholly owned television team, led by Nick Pepper to manage our growing television portfolio.
Please join me in congratulating Kara and Tom! More details will follow as we implement these changes. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Best regards,
Laura
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