Nick Weidenfeld
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Nicholas Rabb Weidenfeld (born September 26, 1979) is an American television producer and executive who led program development for
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...
's
Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...
and Fox's Animation Domination High-Def programming blocks. He won producing
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
in 2012 and 2013 for the series ''
Childrens Hospital ''Childrens Hospital'' (originally titled ''Children's Hospital'' as webisodes) is an American dark comedy television and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry. The series began o ...
''. Since 2016, he has been the president of programming for television channel
Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The Vice ...
.


Biography

Weidenfeld was born in 1979 to Edward Weidenfeld, a Washington DC lawyer, and Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, former press secretary to First Lady Betty Ford. He grew up in Georgetown and attended Georgetown Day School. While there, he parlayed his interest in rap into assignments writing up interviews for little-known popular culture magazines and websites. He started the alternative magazine ''While You Were Sleeping'' in the late 1990s, and reviewed music for magazines '' Seventeen'' and ''
Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...
''. At
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, he was a liberal arts major. He interned at
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. In 2004, he arranged to interview Mike Lazzo, a senior executive at Atlanta's
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...
for an in-depth piece (intended for ''
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'' magazine, but never published) about the network's
Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...
block of programming. The two got along well. Lazzo wasn't familiar with Weidenfeld's satirical ''While You Were Sleeping'', but his staff was. Partly on the strength of that, Lazzo offered him a job as director of program development at Adult Swim. The position would entail shepherding projects from greenlighting to air. Adult Swim was a small operation at the time. Weidenfeld's first responsibility was to find talent, particularly developers outside the traditional animation pipelines, who could help the company grow beyond animation into live action. In seven years there, Weidenfeld developed, among others, ''
Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animation, adult stop motion, stop-motion animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The twelve-minute ...
'', the
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-winning animated series '' The Boondocks'', '' Delocated'', and ''
Childrens Hospital ''Childrens Hospital'' (originally titled ''Children's Hospital'' as webisodes) is an American dark comedy television and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry. The series began o ...
'', in addition to providing the voice of Peanut Cop in '' 12 oz. Mouse''. For ''Childrens Hospital'', he would win producing
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
in 2012 and 2013. In June 2008, he married Amantha Starr Walden, a music executive at Adult Swim and daughter of the late record label executive Phil Walden. By October 2011, when their son was born, they had moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles. In February 2012, then Fox President, Kevin Reilly tapped Weidenfeld to lead the network's foray into late-night Saturday animation. Dubbed Animation Domination High-Def (ADHD), the 90-minute programming block would be filled with 15-minute shows broken up by shorter bits. Fox built a 12,500-square-foot, 120-person, animation studio, ADHD Studios, with Weidenfeld at its head, and he founded his own production company, Friends Night, to license content to the network. Aiming for comedy that would appeal to an audience younger than himself, he tried to hire only young candidates who had never paid to watch television. ADHD premiered in July 2013. Fox took the underperforming experiment off the air in June 2014 because it failed to reach the target audience and upset too many of the network's older viewers. Two ADHD series were moved to primetime, while others continued on digital platforms, before they shifted to a new late-night animation block on sister channel FX in 2015. Weidenfeld was hired in April 2016 as the president of programming for
Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The Vice ...
, a youth-oriented television channel that is a joint venture between
A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...
and
Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weidenfeld, Nicholas Rabb American television executives American television producers Cartoon Network executives Fox Broadcasting Company executives Primetime Emmy Award winners Columbia College (New York) alumni Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. Living people Georgetown Day School alumni 1979 births