HBO Max VP Nikki Reed Exits Amid Layoffs – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: About 70 people, or 14% of the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys, were laid off last week as part of cost-cutting across Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, only the departures of the heads of departments that were worst hit — all of them on the HBO Max side — were made public, including Jennifer O’Connell EVP, Non-Fiction & Live-Action Family Originals. Now names of other executives who are leaving as part of the restructuring and staff reductions are starting to trickle out.

One of them is respected kids development exec Nikki Reed who was VP Kids and Family Scripted Originals. She was part of O’Connell’s team that has been disbanded as HBO Max pulled back dramatically on kids programming and live-action family originals.

Reed joined HBO Max in 2019, ahead of HBO’s 2020 launch, to lead original scripted programming in the kids and family space. Before that, she was VP Original Series Development at Nickelodeon and worked at Disney where she was responsible for development of live-action series for Disney Channel and Disney XD, including Shake It Up, Lab Rats and Girl Meets World. She also ID’d the Hyperion book series that served as the inspiration for Disney Channel’s Descendants franchise.

Her credits including exec producing the Mark Wahlberg pic Invincible and developing National Treasure and The Kid while at Junction Entertainment.