EXCLUSIVE: After nearly a decade at Apple TV, Morgan Wandell is departing as Head of International Development. He will remain focused on the growing international television market with the launch of his own production company, Kismet.
Based in Los Angeles, Kismet will be developing and producing premium scripted series aimed at the global marketplace by finding and nurturing projects and voices that can travel through high-end culturally rooted storytelling.
Wandell joined Apple in October 2017, ahead of the launch of Apple TV, to build its international slate. During his time there, he oversaw tentpole Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which has spawned an upcoming spin-off starring Wyatt Russell, the International Emmy-winning espionage thriller Tehran and comedy Acapulco, Masters of the Air from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, and The New Look.
Following Wandell’s departure, Matt Cherniss, Apple TV’s Head of Programming and Domestic Development, will take over the Monarch franchise and other series that were under Wandell’s purview, adding them to his portfolio that includes such hits as Ted Lasso, Severance, The Studio and Pluribus.
Jay Hunt, Apple TV’s Creative Director, Europe, will expand her role to oversee international and local-language originals. She is in charge of British staples Slow Horses and Hijack, among others.
As he is launching Kismet, Wandell is in discussions with Apple to stay on as a producer on some of the projects he had put together.
“Helping to build Apple TV’s international slate has been the privilege of my career,” Wandell said. “I’m deeply grateful to Jamie [Erlicht], Zack [Van Amburg], and all my colleagues at Apple, and to the extraordinary creators we’ve partnered with around the world. It was a hard personal decision to make this leap from a company as terrific as Apple, but I have always wanted to build a company of my own.”
Added Wandell, “The opportunity to serve as an entrepreneur and producer in the growing white space for premium series for the global marketplace is one I couldn’t pass up and one that audiences are embracing.”
Prior to joining Apple, Wandell served as Head a Drama for Amazon Studios and launched the studio’s international development operation. He oversaw the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Goliath, and A Very English Scandal and breakout Indian originals The Family Man, Mirzapur, and Made in Heaven. He also was involved in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Man in the High Castle, and Bosch.
Earlier in his career, as SVP Drama at ABC Studios, Wandell shepherded such series as Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, Ugly Betty and Criminal Minds.
