Cyma Zarghami Launches MiMO Studio

Cyma Zarghami, who was the longtime president of Nickelodeon, is launching MiMO Studio, a full-service production and consultancy company focused on kids’ and family content.

“MiMO will challenge the typical content format and create franchise-potential properties that will engage kids and their families in deeper and more relevant ways,” said Zarghami. “MiMO Studio will be at the forefront of building a new franchise model for kids’ content in what is seeming more and more like a post-broadcast world. It has been very rewarding to personally select IP that will come to life in keeping with my vision to super-serve kids 11 and under in a new media landscape, one that is being primarily designed for the adult audience. We are already in production on the first property and have identified five others that span live action, animation and preschool that we cannot wait to get to work on.”

The New York-based studio will create content in multiple formats, including a reimagination of TV-length original movies that encourage family co-viewing. Sourced from both original IP and beloved kids’ and family material spanning live action, animation and preschool, MiMO will develop and produce all of its properties with an eye toward franchise development.

The studio will focus on projects that inspire positive family values with today’s kids at the center—eager to learn about the world around them—led by authentic relatable, multicultural characters and driven by diverse storytelling with a fast-to-market approach; create limited event series and movies; partner with award-winning creative teams to build content from beloved children’s book titles; and produce series of stand-alone specials with recurring characters.

MiMO’s first live-action movie, based on Matt Christopher’s popular children’s book The Kid Who Only Hit Homers, began production earlier this month. The team has contemporized The Kid Who Only Hit Homers, a story about baseball, perseverance, confidence and being a good teammate.

Zarghami brings to MiMO her experience from Nickelodeon, during its 22-year run as the number one basic cable network for kids and total viewers, and as the president for more than ten years of Viacom’s kids’ and family group.