Career Moves: Casey Bloys Upped at HBO, Chris Bender Starts Up Good Fear

Keep up with the revolving door that is the film industry with our weekly Career Moves column that tracks all the comings and goings of the industry leaders that make Hollywood tick. Check out last week’s Career Moves to find out who went where, when and why.

– Mere days after long-time creative chief Michael Lombardo exited his post as president of programming at HBO (he will stay on in what appears to be a very snazzy producing deal), the cable network has found his replacement. HBO has upped Casey Bloys, previously the president of series, late night and specials to the top post. Bloys comes from a development and programming background, while Lombardo hailed from the business side. Bloys was behind shows like “Silicon Valley” and “Girls.” 

– Paramount heady of comedy Jennifer Howell has moved over to DreamWorks Animation as their new head of development, taking over for the recently departed Gregg Taylor. Howell’s background in animation is rich, as she previously ran 20th Century Fox Television’s animation department and. before that, served as EVP at Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s film company Important Studios (she was also a long-time supervising producer on Stone and Parker’s “South Park”). The news was first reported by Deadline.

– Producer Chris Bender, formerly of production-management firm Benderspink, has launched Good Fear Film + Management. Good Fear “will be focused on producing film and television as well as repping directors, writers and actors.” Bender has already hired on producer-manager Jake Weiner as partner, along with managers Jake Wagner, Daniel Vang, Scott Stoops and Ryan Revel. The news was first reported by THR.

– STARZ Digital EVP of global distribution and strategy Mara Winokur is leaving her position as head of the digital division of STARZ Entertainment. Winokur took over the group in 2011 and has said that she is grateful for the opportunities she was given within the company. “I wrestled with the decision for several months,” she commented, “but ultimately I decided it was time for me to move on. I will miss everyone at STARZ,” but she is “looking forward to traveling with my family for the summer and then diving into the next opportunity.” 

– Tiffany Vazquez has been picked as the new Saturday daytime host of Turner Classic Movies, becoming only the third host hired in the network’s history. Vazquez currently works for GIPHY, the world’s largest search engine for GIFs, as a senior editor in charge of all film content. 

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