eOne Alum John Morayniss Launches Blink Studios

Industry veterans John Morayniss, Patrice Theroux, Jeff Lynas and Nelson Kuo-Lee have come together to launch the new content venture Blink Studios.

Blink Studios is headquartered in Toronto with offices in Los Angeles. It will operate as a full-service indie studio focused on the development, production and monetization of premium scripted and unscripted content for a global market.

Endeavor Content is anchor investor and lead strategic partner and will be Blink Studios’ priority distribution partner on a worldwide basis.

With its Canadian base of operations, Blink Studios will be deploying a significant portion of its capital to make investments in Canadian production companies. It plans to put in place strategic deals with best-in-class writers, creators, producers and other related content enterprises, as well as aggressively pursue IP in Canada and throughout the world. Blink Studios will dedicate significant resources to support new and diverse Canadian voices and will utilize its expertise, capital and extensive relationships to give diverse, unique and compelling stories an opportunity to reach a worldwide market.

Morayniss co-founded Canadian indie Blueprint Entertainment in 2002, and as CEO, rolled up Blueprint with several other Canadian-based media businesses that were then acquired by Entertainment One (eOne) in 2008 to launch eOne’s television business. He then led eOne TV as its CEO for a decade.

Theroux has built major distribution and production organizations for more than 30 years, including Alliance Films, where he was CEO, and eOne, where he served as president of film and television from 2007 to 2014.

Lynas was responsible for all of the day-to-day operations for eOne Television on a global basis before leaving the company after a decade.

Kuo-Lee served as executive VP of eOne’s film and television business and also held positions of COO and CFO before departing in early 2020.

“I am beyond delighted and energized to be partnering with my former colleagues, Patrice, Jeff and Nelson, in this new media enterprise,” said Morayniss. “And, of course, we couldn’t be more excited about launching Blink Studios with the commitment and support of Endeavor Content as our lead strategic investor. When we first began our discussions with Chris [Rice] and Graham [Taylor], we felt that there was an immediate understanding and alignment as to why we were so passionate about building a world-class Canadian indie and how we were going to achieve success with a new and improved creative-first approach and strategy. And, with Kirstine [Stewart] and Chris joining our board, we have some of the best strategic minds in the business. We can’t wait to get going!”

Chris Rice and Graham Taylor, co-presidents of Endeavor Content, added, “We are thrilled to be in business with such a phenomenal team and to help support building a business that leans heavily into Canadian talent. Blink is set up to invest in both the most established producers and the incredibly exciting emerging voices coming from Canada—where huge opportunity exists.”