AGC Studios’ unscripted arm AGC Unwritten has expanded with the hires of Emily Knight as VP of development, Yael Egnal as senior manager of development, Hannah Shuman as manager of development and Moriah Lee as development coordinator.
Emily Knight, a key creative force behind the hit dating format “Ex on The Beach,” joins AGC Unwritten from the U.K. with a specialty in creating and selling large-scale global original formats across multiple genres. Most recently, Knight was head of development at Expectation Entertainment, where she ran the factual slate, overseeing commissions for several networks including the BBC and Netflix.
Prior to that, Knight was head of development for the U.K. arm of All3Media’s Maverick TV, where she sold multiple series ranging from the adventure engineering format “Escape” for Channel 4, through to the reboots of global formats such as “How to Look Good Naked” and “10 Years Younger.” Prior to focusing on development, Knight worked in production on “The Voice” and “The Apprentice,” as well as a diverse slate of films and documentary series.
Knight stated: “I am so happy to join the talented team at AGC Unwritten. The studio is embarking on some truly exceptional projects, and I am very excited to develop new formats with such creative people. It is a dream scenario to be part of and a very exciting time.”
Joining Knight is Egnal, AGC Unwritten’s senior manager of development who was most recently manager of development at Xpedition and part of the team that developed HGTV’s “Table Wars.” Egnal previously worked with A24, College Humor and NBC.
Meanwhile, Hannah Shuman, AGC Unwritten’s manager of development joins the expanded Unwritten team having previously served as manager of current programming at CNN Original Series, working on such shows as “This is Life with Lisa Ling.” Shuman began her career at NBCUniversal, developing unscripted programming across Peacock, USA, Bravo and Oxygen.
In addition, Moriah Lee joins the team as coordinator of development from “Magnum, P.I.,” where she was a department coordinator.
Joel Zimmer, president of AGC Unwritten, said: “I’m thrilled to have such an unbelievably talented group of executives join BJ Levin, our executive VP of non-fiction, as we deploy AGC’s incredible resources to develop a dynamic slate. We endeavor to produce best in class unscripted and alternative programming, and their diverse perspectives and experiences are key. I’m also looking forward to the Unwritten team accelerating its collaborations with AGC’s already acclaimed feature film and scripted television divisions.”
AGC Unwritten has projects in development at Peacock and Netflix, and is currently in post-production on a feature documentary in partnership with “Cartel Land” director Matt Heineman’s Our Time Productions.
Zimmer joined as president and equity partner of AGC Unwritten with a mandate to further deploy AGC’s resources to develop, finance, produce and distribute unscripted and alternative programming, mirroring AGC’s activities in feature films and scripted TV.
Prior to launching AGC Unwritten, AGC Studios co-produced the Netflix documentary “The Tinder Swindler,” which was a breakout success. The company’s other credits include “Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story” and “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”
