Andy Weil, Netflix‘s VP Comedy and the streamer’s second-longest-serving programming executive, is leaving to join Amazon MGM Studios as Head of Comedy. Amazon MGM Studios‘ Head of Global Television Peter Friedlander just announced the hire internally in a memo, which you can read below. Weil’s first day is September 14.
The Head of Comedy search was launched a month ago by Friedlander, who was Weil’s former boss at Netflix. At the time, Friedlander tweaked his original plan for the studio’s scripted operation structure, creating three areas — Drama, Comedy and Young Adult, each reporting to him — alongside the previously established Worldbuilding & Genre Series, led by Blair Fetter, and Animation, led by Melissa Wolfe. Weil joins Amazon veteran Kara Smith, who was named Head of Drama at the time of June’s restructuring announcement. The Head of YA job remains vacant.
Weil is the latest Friedlander hire of a senior executive he had worked with at Netflix, following the appointments of Fetter, Jenn Levy as Head of Nonfiction and Mandy Schaffer as Head of Business Affairs. He is the first current Netflix executive to make the move; the rest had left the streamer before they were recruited by Friedlander.
A well-regarded comedy executive, Weil had been at Netflix for more than 11 years; he joined the platform’s comedy team as Director of Original Series in June 2015 from Universal Television.
By then, Weil already had been a rising star — he was 27 when NBCUniversal brought him in as VP Comedy in late 2011 after he had served as head of scripted television for BermanBraun. At Uni TV, Weil shepherded hit Brooklyn Nine-Nine and also worked on two other acclaimed comedies, The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the latter of which was developed for NBC before moving to Netflix.
During his Netflix tenure, Weil served as the No. 2 comedy executive, first under Jane Wiseman and then Tracey Pakosta, and was promoted to VP in February 2020. He took the reins of the department on an interim basis after Wiseman’s October 2020 exit until Pakosta’s arrival a month later.
In addition to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the many Netflix comedy series Weil oversaw over the years include Master of None, BoJack Horseman, Nobody Wants This, The Four Seasons, Russian Doll, The Upshaws, The Ranch, Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, Tires, A Man on the Inside, Big Mistakes, Free Bert, Lady Dynamite, The Kominsky Method, Leanne, The Vince Staples Show, On My Block, A Different World and the upcoming A Hundred Percent and I Suck at Girls. He also was the executive on Netflix’s sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror.
While Prime Video has established itself in the drama and YA space with a string of global hits such as Reacher, Fallout, The Summer I Turned Pretty and Off Campus, Amazon MGM Studios’ streamer is yet to scale up in the half-hour comedy space. Its modestly sized current comedy slate include two hits in the YA arena, Overcompensating and Elle, as well as the Emmy-nominated anthology Jury Duty. There is also the recent breakout hourlong comedy-drama Ride or Die, which is awaiting word on Season 2 renewal.
