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Our Team

Headquartered in Toronto, Los Angeles and Vancouver, we are a growing team of passionate entertainment industry experts.

John Morayniss is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blink49 Studios, overseeing all aspects of the company’s activities, which encompass the development, production, licensing, financing and monetization of all forms of television content. Before launching Blink49 Studios, John served for a decade as the CEO of Entertainment One Television (eOne). Under his leadership, eOne established an unparalleled network of global television partnerships, delivered acclaimed scripted and non-scripted series and grew its global sales operation to be among the best in the industry. Some of the most notable productions during his tenure include The Rookie for ABC starring Nathan Fillion, Designated Survivor for ABC and Netflix starring Kiefer Sutherland, Sharp Objects for HBO starring Amy Adams, Hell On Wheels for AMC, Burden of Truth for the CBC and CW, Hung for HBO and Rookie Blue for Corus and ABC. On the non-scripted side, during John’s tenure, eOne’s slate included Naked and Afraid for Discovery; Siesta Keys for MTV; and LA Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later for A&E. In addition, John orchestrated the acquisition of international distribution rights to AMC’s The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.
Nelson Kuo-Lee is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Blink49 Studios overseeing all operations and financial matters. Previously, Nelson served as Executive Vice-President of Entertainment One’s global Film and Television business and held positions of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer before departing in early 2020. Nelson joined eOne in 2007 and was instrumental in shepherding its growth into a global independent studio; as COO, leading its early M&A strategy and new business integration, and as CFO, overseeing its global finance restructuring and information systems transformation. Nelson is a former Director of the Board of FilmOntario.
Jeff Lynas serves as Blink49 Studios’ Co-Founder and General Manager with a focus on Production and Production Financing. Prior to joining Blink49 Studios, Jeff was Chief Operating Officer for eOne Television and responsible for operations on a global basis. He also led business development for the division, establishing and structuring new business relationships across production, distribution, and digital media. Jeff supported the growth of eOne’s U.S. non-scripted business, worked on transformative deals including the initial acquisition of The Mark Gordon Company and a multi-series output deal with AMC Networks. Jeff joined eOne in September 2008 when the company acquired Blueprint Entertainment, where he served as Senior Vice President, Operations. Before the acquisition, he played a key role in establishing Blueprint’s business in the U.S. and building relationships with producers and broadcasters.
Previously, she served as Head of Scripted Television and Production at Will Packer Media where she sold more than five shows into development to both streamers and broadcasters in just under a year. Prior to that, Carolyn was Director of Original Series for Netflix where she developed 17 original titles such as Clickbait, The Serpent, Echoes, Partner Track, Anatomy of a Scandal and Feel Good. In addition, she served as Senior Vice President of Scripted Programming at Entertainment One, expanding the company’s scripted television business with high-profile titles like Run, Sharp Objects and Gentleman in Moscow. Carolyn also worked at Amazon Studios, where she was in charge of Development and Production on more than 15 series including Bosh, Hand of God, Britannia and Good Girls Revolt. She previously worked at Canadian production company Sphere Media Plus as the Vice President, English Development and Production /Executive Producer on 19-2.
Virginia Rankin is an independent award-winning producer working across scripted development and production in Canada, the U.S. and internationally. Virginia was Executive Producer of Sphere Media’s multi award-winning medical drama Transplant, which has aired to critical acclaim and ratings success on CTV and NBC. Prior to Transplant, Virginia served as Executive Producer of four seasons of the International Emmy-nominated police drama 19-2 (CTV) which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Dramatic Series in 2015. She also executive produced This Life S1 and S2 (CBC) and Bad Blood (Netflix). Previously, Virginia was also Executive Creative Consultant on the CTV/CBS hit drama Flashpoint.

Toby Dormer currently serves as Executive Vice President of Unscripted Television for Blink49 Studios. Prior to joining Blink49 Studios, Toby was Executive Vice President, Unscripted Canada at Entertainment One (eOne). His credits at eOne include Arctic Vets (CBC/NatGeo), Project Bakeover (Food Network/Hulu), The Chicago Strangler (Discovery+), Death In The Bayou (iD), Thunder Bay (CTV/Crave), Border Security (Global/Netflix) and many more.

Earlier in his career Toby was the founder and President of London-based, Remedy Productions, the UK’s largest producer of entertainment programming by volume for many years. While at Remedy he oversaw the production of over 10,000 hours for the likes of BBC, Channel 4, MTV, E4, Sky, and Five, and also created content for brands such as Nike, Playstation, Red Bull and many more.

In 2011, Remedy was acquired by the Argonon media Group and Toby launched the company’s Canadian office. Credits include First Dates (Global), My Floating Home (HGTV/Channel4), Cabin Truckers (A&E/Cottage Life).

Nicole Ungerman Levinsohn serves as Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs and is responsible for the structuring, negotiation, documentation and management of Blink49 Studios’ agreements, including agreements to engage talent, acquire underlying rights, and license content. In addition, Nicole implements and administers standard operating procedures for the company’s development, production and acquisitions, and manages all business-related partnerships. Nicole’s wide variety of experience includes SVP of Business and Legal Affairs at UPN, where she similarly managed the Business and Legal Affairs department for 6 years (including negotiating the first network deal for the WWE, as well as for America’s Next Top Model and for Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Prior to this, Nicole spent 6 years at NBC (as both Director and Vice President of Business Affairs), where she was responsible for shows such as Seinfeld, Mad About You and Frasier. Prior to joining NBC, Nicole was a Sports and Entertainment attorney at Goodman and Goodman in Toronto, Canada, in addition to serving as the US/Canadian liaison for Western International Communication’s media-related co-venture and tax shelter opportunities. Most recently, Nicole completed instrumental roles as a Business and Legal Affairs executive at both eOne (2020) and Hulu (2022).
Tashi Bieler is the Senior Vice President and Head of Production at Blink49 Studios. She oversees all areas of physical production and post-production spanning from development through delivery across scripted and unscripted productions. Previously, she served as Entertainment One’s SVP of Production where she supervised content production for key titles such as Netflix’s The Recruit, the Kiefer Sutherland drama series Designated Survivor, HBO’s Run, the popular procedural detective series Private Eyes for Corus and most recently The Spencer Sisters for CTV starring Lea Thompson.
Mal Stares is the Senior Vice President of Global Scripted Programming at Blink49 Studios. She is across development and production of Blink49’s current and upcoming slate of scripted content spanning drama and comedy, working closely with creators, authors, writers, producers and broadcasters. Stares is charged with initiating a new slate of development projects to add to the Blink49 pipeline. Most recently, Stares served as Vice President of International TV production at FIFTH SEASON, leading the company’s expansion into Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. During her tenure, she successfully sold Amazon’s first Australian original series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart starring Sigourney Weaver, played a key role in securing deficit financing for notable productions such as BBC’s Queen of Oz, SBS’s Swift Street, and CBC’s Run the Burbs, and set up Mammals at Amazon, written by Jez Butterworth and starring James Corden. Previously at BBC Studios, she worked on shows set up with AMC, Netflix, FX, HBO, Showtime, Warner Bros. TV, Sony TV, and Snapchat, including Call Me Kat (Fox). Stares also helped launch Scott Rudin’s Los Angeles based scripted division, overseeing multiple projects, including What We Do In The Shadows (FX), Diagnosis (Netflix) and Barkskins (NatGeo). Previously, she worked with former HBO exec Anne Thomopoulos at Trio Lunch on Outlander (Starz), Versailles (Canal+) and Black Box (ABC). Stares is a dual citizen of Canada and the UK, and began her career working in physical production in Vancouver.

Daphne Park has an extensive career in the industry holding senior management positions in production finance and business affairs at leading Canadian film and television companies. She oversaw the business affairs of projects from development to production through to distribution, and was also responsible for production cashflows, interim financing, audits and tax credits. She played a key role in the structuring and negotiation of production financing with co-production partners, equity investors, and public and private financiers.

Prior to joining Blink49 Studios, Daphne was the Vice-President of Business Affairs at Sphere Media Toronto (formerly Sienna Films) where she handled a number of feature films and television series. Most recently, she served as a Co-Executive Producer on the drama series, The Porter (CBC/BET+) and a Co-Producer on the first season of Sort Of (CBC/HBO Max), a critically acclaimed series which garnered numerous awards in 2022 including the Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series and a Peabody Award.

Lindsay Tolbert is Vice President of Scripted Television at Blink49 Studios. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Development at David Ayer’s Cedar Park Entertainment where she oversaw both film and television projects and covered first-year series Deputy. Prior to that, Lindsay was Director of Development at eOne television, joining in 2018 from The Mark Gordon Company. At The Mark Gordon Company, she served as an executive supporting series such as Youth & Consequences, Designated Survivor, Conviction and the Criminal Minds spinoff, Beyond Borders. Lindsay began her career working in production and extras casting in Atlanta.

Allison Brough is the Vice President of Unscripted Television for Blink49 Studios. Previously, she was the Vice President of Unscripted Television, Canada, and Head of Podcasts, Global, at eOne. In her time at eOne, Allison sold five series, across all genres, for broadcast and development into the US and CRAVE, in which she is also the Executive Producer, and Project Bakeover for Food Network Canada. Allison also oversaw the company’s global podcast network, created their podcast to broadcast mandate, working with talent from all over the globe.

Prior to that, she was the Director of Development at Lone Eagle Entertainment where she helped to build their slate and sell domestically. Allison also worked as a Development Executive at Tricon Films and Television, where she was instrumental in creating and production such shows as HGTV’s Breakneck Build and The Expandables, OWN’s Pop Up Gourmet and BRAVO’s Après Ski.

Outside of the industry Allison is a founding member of the Innovators Committee at SickKids Hospital.

Alix Steerman serves as Blink49 Studios’ Director of Scripted Television. Prior to joining Blink49 Studios, Alix served as the Television Coordinator at Circle of Confusion, a management and production company based in LA. She currently works with screenwriting programs such as Roadmap Writers, where she helps provide industry insight and script feedback to lift up emerging voices. Alix is a Philadelphia native and a 2019 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

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