Stephanie Sperber Talks Lion Forge Ethos

Lion Forge Entertainment has undertaken a number of new initiatives in the last two years—all in support of its mission to bring forward diverse stories that are authentically told. In March 2023, the company behind the Oscar-winning Hair Love brought in Imagine Kids+Family executive Stephanie Sperber to serve as its president and chief content officer. Sperber has been focusing on building global transmedia franchises around the IP that sits within Lion Forge, as well as expanding production and distribution partnerships, spearheading licensing and merchandising initiatives and overseeing all aspects of the company’s new live-action film and TV division. She tells TV Kids Weekly about the value in owning IP that the company can be involved in on several fronts, including distribution, and about supporting authenticity with the shows it puts on-air and the creative talent it works with.

TV KIDS: How has Lion Forge grown and evolved since its founding?
SPERBER: Lion Forge 2.0, we’ll call it, has been in existence for about 18 months. When I started 18 months ago, Dave [David Steward II, founder and CEO] and I were thinking about what the vision for the company was and where we wanted to be in two years. We both wanted to see a couple of things. Number one, we wanted to own a piece of IP that we could produce as a studio, control consumer product rights for and manage distribution on. We are doing all of those things on Iyanu. We are super happy that we’ve been able to see that big goal through.

The other things that we talked about might sound simple, but they make a big impact. We wanted to open an office. We wanted to have a footprint in Los Angeles because we felt strongly that we are a creative group and collaboration is absolutely critical to getting the best creative from the team, and we wanted to make a statement to the industry at large that we mean what we say, we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We’re here, we are part of the community, and we’re making that known by actually opening an office. It’s great to come into the office every day and be able to work together with the team on creative. And we opened a distribution hub and have an executive who runs distribution for Lion Forge International. We have set up so many things. We are having a lot of luck in terms of creative development and then getting projects sold into development. It’s come to fruition, and we’re right at the spot I was hoping to be after 18 months or so as an organization.

TV KIDS: What are some of the partnerships that Lion Forge has put in place, and how do they support the company?
SPERBER: We have two projects in active development right now with Nickelodeon. We are working with Netflix on another project and hoping that will become two projects very soon. We have our first live-action show, a multi-camera comedy, in development. Hopefully, we’ll shoot a pilot very soon. We are about to shoot a pilot for PBS KIDS with FableVision Studios as a partner. That is a live-action/animated hybrid that we are producing. And we have a slate of live-action and animated projects that we are taking out before the end of the year that we have really high hopes for. We are working with pretty much all of the buyers at this moment.

TV KIDS: How has the move into distribution been fruitful?
SPERBER: We now have a number of finished episodes on Iyanu that distribution is taking out to sell to the rest of the world. We are very busy talking to buyers around the world, with Iyanu front and center. We are being very selective and talking to some third-party IP owners about representing them as well. We’ve narrowed it down and made some selections, so hopefully soon, we’ll make some really big announcements on other IPs that we are working on within distribution.

TV KIDS: How are the rollout plans coming along for Iyanu?
SPERBER: We have been busy this summer getting the early marketing out around Iyanu. We were at Comic-Con this year. We had some cosplayers even dressing up as Iyanu and one of the other characters, which is so cool, and we did a panel. We were at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival, where we premiered the main title song and revealed the artist behind that song, Yemi Alade, who is a huge Nigerian Afrobeats superstar. Now, we are looking forward to a launch next year with Cartoon Network and Max. There are amazing marketing plans in the works. We’ve launched social channels and digital marketing on YouTube. We are growing the digital footprint and social audience pretty dramatically. We put out new footage, put out the song and started really getting some great fan engagement.

All of the marketing that we’re doing is based on the authentic Yorubaland mythology, which Iyanu is based around. The creator, Roye Okupe, is Nigerian from Lagos, and he created this amazing world and characters based on Yorubaland stories and myths. It is incredibly authentic. Every voice actor in it is Nigerian, and it was recorded in Nigeria for the most part. All of the music is from Nigeria. The production designer is in Nigeria. We’ve been very excited to train two new animation directors, both of whom are incredible Black directing talent, and give them the opportunity to direct numerous episodes, be in on the sound mixing and color timing and authentically grow our Lion Forge stable of filmmakers at the same time.

TV KIDS: What are the plans on the live-action front?
SPERBER: We love live action. It’s so much fun. It expands our opportunity to talk to different buyers—so it gives us more chances to succeed. We have sold our first live-action show. Fingers crossed, we’ll get to pilot and get picked up. We also have a slate that we are about to take out that includes live-action movies and live-action series. We’re working with Rebel Girls, the giant global publishing IP. They have a new middle-grade reader series—the first fiction that Rebel Girls has ever put out—and we have adapted that into a single-camera TV series. We’re taking that out to market right now. We’re working with an incredible showrunner named Anna McCleery, who wrote a pilot. It’s just such a great idea. That’s on top of our live-action series slate. Then, we have a number of features that we are also taking out, some of which we have funded scripts for. We’re in the business of funding development on certain projects where it makes sense. We have a really interesting holiday slate in live action, a Christmas movie and a Halloween movie, that we’re about to take to market. We’re mostly sticking to the kids’ and family and YA space in live action.

TV KIDS: Above all, what do you hope Lion Forge can bring to the table and contribute to the kids’ and family landscape?
SPERBER: The mission of our company is: diverse stories, authentically told. We want to stay true to that and bring characters to the screen that represent the country and the world. We want our shows to look like the people in our neighborhoods and the people in every neighborhood. It’s about authentically showing kids on-screen so they can see themselves and feel represented. That’s number one.

The second thing is we also want to work with creators and give them the chance to drive their own creative and lead their own shows. What Dave and I really hope for is that we can have authenticity represented on-screen. We want to show kids that there are heroes who look just like them and show the talent behind the screen that there is a place for them, that their creativity is incredibly valued and valuable, and that we’re here to support and grow.