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Hulu has hired Joel Stillerman, AMC and SundanceTV’s president of original programming and development for the newly created position of chief content officer after a months-long extensive search.
Craig Erwich will remain Hulu’s senior vice president and head of content, while shifting his duties to focus on the streaming service’s original programming. Meanwhile, AMC Networks will launch a search for a new head of programming to replace Stillerman.
Stillerman is slated to start in the summer. He will relocate from New York to Los Angeles, and will be based at the Santa Monica headquarters, reporting directly to Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins.
In the new position, he’ll oversee all Hulu content, driving and evolving the company’s content strategy through acquisitions, original programming and content partner management teams. He’ll also be working with marketing, distribution, ad sales, technology and product departments to increase subscribers and ad revenue.
Stillerman joins Hulu at a time when the company has worked to expand its slate of original series, and recently launched a live TV streaming service.
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“This year is a transformative year for Hulu — not just in our products, but also our investment in acquired and original content,” Hopkins said in a statement. “Over the past several years, we’ve grown our audience and our content offering exponentially, and now is the right time to add Joel’s creative and strategic leadership to the team and drive the next phase of Hulu’s content business.”
Over the past couple years Hulu has acquired shows such as Empire, Homeland, Black-ish, The Goldbergs, The Golden Girls library and This Is Us.
HIs hiring also follows the streaming services breakout success of its original series The Handmaid’s Tale in April, which has already been renewed for a second season, as the company seeks to rival Netflix and Amazon in a cultural genre.
The streamer is also working on space drama The First, from House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, Marvel’s Runaways, and J.J. Abrams and Stephen King’s Castle Rock. All were revealed at the company’s upfront—where executives also touted Hulu’s 47 million viewers, 12 million subscribers, and double digit growth of its base.
Stillerman joins Hulu after nearly a decade at AMC Networks. He joined the company in the Mad Men era of 2008, and helped developed original programming including the network’s top series The Walking Dead, its spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, its prequel Better Call Saul, The Night Manager, and Into the Badlands.
Stillerman, who joined AMC post-Mad Men and Breaking Bad in 2008, added Sundance TV to his purview in 2015. During his tenure at AMC, he helped develop The Walking Dead ; its spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead; Breaking Bad-prequel Better Call Saul; The Night Manager; and Into the Badlands.
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with Joel Stillerman for the last near-decade. In addition to being an extremely talented programming executive, he’s a truly good person, friend and valued colleague,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios, in a statement.
“Joel has played a major role in the transformation of AMC from a movie channel into an established leader in original programming. We wish him nothing but the best in his move to the West Coast, his future endeavors with our partner, Hulu, and – perhaps most challenging – his search to replace his New Jersey bowling team, the Emus, who will surely miss him as much as we will.”
While AMC searches for a new head of programming for it and Sundance TV, the networks’ heads of scripted, nonfiction and international co-productions/acquisitions will report to Collier.
READ MORE: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline
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