TLC Taps Destination America’s Sara Helman

NEW YORK: TLC has appointed Sara Helman as VP of development and production.

Helman joins TLC’s east coast development team from Destination America, which is owned by Discovery Communications. At TLC, Helman will be based in New York and report to Howard Lee, the executive VP of development and production at TLC.

At Destination America, Helman oversaw production for series such as Hillbilly Blood and Buying the Bayou. She also developed and launched Destination America’s first live show, Exorcism: Live! and produced the new series Alaska Haunting.

Helman began at Discovery Communications in 2003 as part of the development team for Discovery Kids. She later moved on to Animal Planet, where she served as a manager and director of development until 2011. During her time at Animal Planet, Helman developed the pet series Too Cute and worked on other series such as Tanked, My Cat from Hell and Hillbilly Handfishin’. She has also worked for Food Network and Cooking Channel.