Brian Pines (President/CEO)
Brian Pines is the president and CEO of Hypomania Content, a production company based in Los Angeles.
Pines is an Executive Producer of the ABC comedy The Real O’Neals. His other credits include the Emmy-nominated It Gets Better (MTV and Logo), Savage U (MTV) and The Pre-Game Meal (NECN).
Pines was SVP of TV at Josephson Entertainment. Prior to that, he served as VP of Production and Development at Heel & Toe Films from where he was Executive in Charge of Production on the hit series House.
Pines began his career working in public relations at the firm Nancy Seltzer & Associates and as the assistant to actors Julia Ormond and Susan Sarandon.
Pines is also the co-founder of the Iola Foundation, a California-based 501(c)3 that currently operates as the It Gets Better Project. Pines serves on the board of the Project, which works to communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth around the world that ‘it gets better.’ The It Gets Better Project received the Governors’ Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2012 for its use of the medium of television to inspire social change.
Pines is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Dramatic Writing Program. He is engaged to Seth Levy and lives in Los Angeles with their dogs Biscuit and Dudley.
Anna Gross
Anna Gross began her career with an 8 year stint with Dino De Laurentiis, where she worked in various capacities on 14 films, including Death Wish, Three Days of the Condor, The Shootist, King Kong and Ragtime. She then served as Vice President of Production for Sydney Pollack, working on The Electric Horseman and the development of Tootsie and Out of Africa.
Gross spent much of the 1980′s working in Germany with European uber-producer, Bernd Eichinger. She oversaw production of The Neverending Story, The Name of the Rose and Last Exit to Brooklyn. She then returned to established Constantin Film’s Los Angeles operation.
In the early 90′s Gross served as VP of Production for Italian producer/distributor Vittorio Cecchi Gori. She was the key executive on the Oscar winning Mediterraneo, Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Starmaker (best foreign language nominee), Il Postino (five nominations). She handled the US sale and delivery of these films and was point person for Miramax on its distribution and Academy campaigns. She oversaw production for the Italian financier on Robert De Niro’s directorial debut A Bronx Tale. Her last project there was the Oscar winning, Life is Beautiful.
Anna then began her own niche business of overseeing Oscar campaigns for foreign films. She has handled 11 nominees, including Eichinger’s personal productions, The Baader Meinhoff Complex and Downfall.
She is an alumnus of Columbia University, Graduate Film Division, and a founding board member of the non-profit, FilmAid International.
Ms. Gross is currently a director and the corporate Secretary of Hypomania Content, Inc.
Tom Weedon
Tom Weedon is a senior digital media & advertising executive with extensive experience building successful Internet companies, launching new media startups, and consulting to Fortune 500 companies. After nearly ten years as a successful management consultant with top tier firms such as The Boston Consulting Group and Monitor Group, Weedon joined GoTo.com in 1999 as a Product Manager, where he was responsible for all syndication related products for the company’s paid search business. As GoTo.com became Overture Services, Mr. Weedon rose to Senior Director, Search Quality, managing a team of over 50 people, building and running Overture’s search quality organization. Overture created the paid search business, now a $13 billion market in the US alone. The company was sold to Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.63 billion.
Mr. Weedon devoted his time after leaving Overture in 2003 between charitable organizations and continued consulting with successful Internet companies such as Veoh Networks, a start-up with almost $70 million in funding that attracted media attention when ex-Disney chairman Michael Eisner joined the board in 2006. Mr. Weedon has also consulted with Spot Runner, the first Internet-based ad agency, where he helped them develop a strategy for online video. Mr. Weedon has also worked at Microsoft, where he served as Senior Director, Partner Development. At Microsoft, he oversaw the company’s multi-year strategic partnership with Viacom, valued at more than $500 million. Mr. Weedon most recently served as Vice President, Global Accounts for the Rubicon Project which is a pioneer, and the market leader, in yield optimization business for display advertising. At Rubicon, Mr. Weedon was responsible for managing relationships with over 350 premium web publishers worldwide, including companies such as NBC, Gannett, News Corp, Tribune, Hearst and Time Inc. Mr. Weedon holds a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours, First Class) from Queen’s University.
Mr. Weedon is currently a director of Hypomania Content, Inc.
Josh Hancock
Josh Hancock is the expert advisor for all things automotive in Hollywood, the car culture capital of the world. He has cast cars in more than 25 feature films and consulted on dozens more, working with everyone from Martin Scorsese (on Casino) and Francis Ford Coppola (on John Grisham’s The Rainmaker) to Mike Myers (as New Line Cinema’s on-staff auto consultant, Hancock chose the cars for all three Austin Powers films as well as The Cat In The Hat). Hancock has also served as on-camera talent as well as executive-producer and host of 13 episodes of “Shifting Gears” for The History Channel. He continues to serve as co-host of Car & Driver Radio, syndicated nationally over radio to 100+ U.S. markets as well as on Sirius/XM. With his combined experience in motion picture production and vast knowledge of the auto industry, Hancock is increasingly called on to consult with global automotive brands from both the U.S. and abroad on branded entertainment efforts.
Jeffrey Wolf
Jeffrey Wolf is Executive Vice President, U.S. Syndication Sales for Sony Pictures Television (SPT). In this role, Wolf has oversight of domestic syndication and library sales. This includes “Dr. Oz”, “Seinfeld”, and “The King of Queens”. All four regional sales offices, located in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta, report to him.
Prior to this, Wolf served as SVP, northern region, for SPT, managing the day-to-day operations of the company’s New York and Chicago offices. Previously, Wolf was SVP, Syndication and Business Development. In this role, he managed the operations of the New York office as well as program sales issues within SPT’s extensive business-to-business website, which was launched in 2001.
Before joining SPT in 1993, Wolf was Account Executive, eastern region, for King World Productions, and a Senior Research Analyst for Seltel, a national sales rep firm. He graduated from Washington D.C.’s George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
Frances Fiore
Frances Fiore is an entertainment marketing and film production veteran who began her career as a music industry publicist, working with artists like Depeche Mode, Prince, and George Michael. She moved into the film sector, where she represented directors, actors, and filmmakers, including Julia Roberts, Johnny Depp, Whitney Houston, Oprah
Winfrey, Annette Bening, Susan Sarandon, Jonathan Demme and many others. She worked on publicity campaigns for many Miramax films (the Scream series, Good Will Hunting, etc.) and Oscar®-campaigns for films like Dead Man Walking, The Usual Suspects, and Fargo.
Following a post as director of publicity for a film production and distribution company, she has been working independently as a unit publicist on major feature film productions for ten years. Some of her credits include: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Royal Tenenbaums, Signs, Synechdoche, New York, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, The Brave One, P.S. I Love You, Across The Universe, the upcoming Matt Damon film The Adjustment Bureau, for Universal Pictures, and Men In Black III for Sony Pictures.
Additionally, as a “behind the scenes” producer and marketing consultant, her clients have included Macy’s/J. Walter Thompson (for their brand campaigns featuring Mariah Carey, Carlos Santana, Jessica Simpson, and more), Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, Disney, and others.
Stephanie Laffin
Stephanie Laffin began her career in New York City with theatrical casting directors Stuart Howard and Howard Meltzer. After working on the award winning revivals of Grease!, Chicago, and Annie, as well as numerous commercials, regional theater and touring productions, Stephanie transitioned into the world of television casting. As a casting associate, Stephanie worked on the casting for Law & Order:SVU and several pilots.
After spending a year working on the television series Music in High Places, Stephanie moved to Los Angeles and worked on the casting of Monk and Century City, several feature films, numerous pilots and the critically acclaimed and globally successful series House. For her work on House, Stephanie was nominated for both an Emmy Award and an Artios Award.
Stephanie serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the It Gets Better Project, supervising the day to day management of the well known LGBT anti-bullying movement.
Stephanie is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she received the Genevieve Schmich Award as recognition for her contribution to the dramatic life of the college.
Blue State Digital & Thomas Gensemer
Blue State Digital is a leader in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, and constituency development programs for nonprofit organizations, political candidates and causes, and corporations. Since 2004,they have delivered successfully on the promise of the Internet to over 200 satisfied clients, including Obama for America, Wal-Mart Watch (now a Hypomania Content client), the Alliance for Climate Protection, and the Communications Workers of America.
Based in Washington, DC, Thomas Gensemer provides day-to-day executive management and oversees Blue State’s Strategy Team. He joined BSD in 2005 with a background in venture capital, strategy consulting, product marketing and technology startup management. Immediately prior to BSD, Thomas was the director of Internet strategy for America Coming Together (ACT), where he managed the organization’s online fundraising, grassroots recruitment, and marketing. Prior to ACT, Thomas led online communications for General Wesley Clark’s 2004 Presidential campaign.
Cathy Lee
Cathy has worked in the entertainment industry for over 15 years, including 12 years at MTV Networks [Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNN (now Spike TV)]. Cathy started at Nickelodeon in Programming, planning and scheduling on-air promotion time on Nick Jr., Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite. She then worked as a Senior Project Manager in the Creative Advertising division.
In addition to managing over 120 advertising projects per year, Cathy was responsible for organizing and budgeting gallery photo shoots for the entire network, including: The Kids’ Choice Awards hosts and many of the network’s biggest hits including SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly, True Jackson, and Victorious.
At Comedy Central, TNN and AMC, Cathy managed and helped develop on-air promotional strategies for all event campaigns, movies, series and episodic promotion. Cathy also collaborated directly with the Promotions Marketing/Ad Sales group to fulfill integrated marketing commitments. Since 2005, Cathy has traveled to Romania twice a year to mentor high school students.
Neda Armian
Neda Armian recently produced Rachel Getting Married, written by Jenny Lumet and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film premiered at the Venice and Toronto film festivals and is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. She produced the feature length documentary on President Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains, for Participant Productions, which premiered at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in 2007. She served as Executive Producer on Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward , which premiered on PBS’ The Tavis Smiley Show in May 2007.
She produced, through her production company, Armian Pictures, The Situation, directed by Philip Haas starring Connie Nielsen and Damian Lewis. She also completed work as producer on the innovative cross-cultural documentary Time Piece and produced the Emmy Award nominated and 2005 Peabody award winning documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks for HBO. Directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, Beah won Best Documentary at the American Film Institute Festival, and the Audience award at both the Austin and Miami Film Festivals. In 2002 she produced for Universal Pictures, The Truth About Charlie, shot on location in Paris by Jonathan Demme and starring Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton and Tim Robbins.
She is currently working as Executive Producer on the forthcoming documentary Give Up Tomorrow directed by Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco. The film was part of the Tribeca All Access program in 2008 and recently received a grant from Sundance. In addition to multiple original projects through Armian Pictures, she is developing an adaptation of Elizabeth McCracken’s critically acclaimed The Giant’s House.