Amazon’s international scripted team is bulking up.
The streamer has hired Oliver Jones, who has spent the last six years at Apple, as Senior Commissioner for UK Scripted.
The move was revealed by Nicole Clemens, VP, International Originals, in a note to staff.
Jones was previously Senior Creative Executive for International Scripted Television at Apple, where he oversaw English-language international event series, non-English language originals, co-productions, and acquisitions. These included Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, starring Kurt Russell, Masters of the Air, from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, starring Austin Butler, Israeli spy series Tehran and Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer.
Oliver will start in May and will relocate from LA back to London. He will work closely with Clemens on UK scripted series.
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Prior to Apple, he worked at Fremantle on series including The Mosquito Coast, Fellow Travelers, and American Gods, The Weinstein Company, where he worked on Yellowstone and Imagine Television, where he worked on Empire.
Amazon’s UK scripted slate includes series such as Robin Wright’s The Girlfriend, Sophie Turner’s Steal, Harlan Coben’s Lazarus and Riz Ahmed’s Bait as well as upcoming series including police thriller Dirty from Matt Charman and an adaptation of Chloe Walsh’s Boys Of Tommen.
UK scripted commissioners Gemma Brandler and Punit Mattoo will report to Jones.
Clemens, in her note to the Amazon MGM Studios International Originals team, said it had a “huge commitment” to the UK.
“Oliver is a seasoned scripted executive with a proven track record in developing premium international content,” she wrote. “This appointment underscores our continued investment in world-class UK scripted programming as we expand our slate for UK and global audiences.”
Jones added, “It has been a privilege to work alongside my brilliant colleagues at Apple TV for the past six years, and to collaborate with the remarkable artists I was lucky enough to work with. It’s always a tough decision to leave a job I love, but the time is right to come back home and start a new adventure. Amazon MGM Studios’ commitment and momentum in telling ambitious, provocative, premium stories, together with the scale of their increased investment in the UK, means it couldn’t be a more exciting moment to be joining Nicole and her phenomenal team.”