EXCLUSIVE: Harvest Hill Entertainment, the management and production company founded by Jake Weiner, has signed creator/showrunner/executive producer April Blair, writer/directors Michael Yuchen Lei and Mina Rhodes, and writer/director/actor Nick Funess for representation in all areas.
Blair most recently created Netflix’s romantic Western Ransom Canyon, starring Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly, which premiered last April and is set to return for its second season on July 23. She is currently overseeing the writers’ room for a potential Season 3. Additional credits include All American (creator, EP) for The CW, Wednesday (writer) for Netflix, Gossip Girl: Next Gen (Co-EP/EP) for HBO Max, You (Co-EP) for Netflix, The Shannara Chronicles (Co-EP) for MTV, Reign (Co-EP/EP) and Hart of Dixie (Co-EP) for The CW, and Jane by Design (creator/EP) for ABC Family.
Blair’s signing with Weiner marks a homecoming as she was his first client while at Benderspink in the early aughts, when she launched her career selling feature specs and pitches to Warner Bros. (Major Movie Star), Universal (Operation Spy Girl), New Line (Double or Nothing), and was a co-writer on Fox’s Monte Carlo, directed by Thomas Bezucha and starring Selena Gomez.
Yuchen Lei is an award-winning Chinese-born filmmaker whose work across fiction and non-fiction has played at festivals including Tribeca, Slamdance, San Sebastian, Hollyshorts, CPH:DOX, and Palm Springs. His feature documentary debut, A Taste of Sky, was produced by Archer Gray (The Persian Version) and premiered at Tribeca. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he began his career in music as personal photographer to Joe Walsh of the Eagles and photographing artists such as Ringo Starr, the xx, and Outkast. His latest film, Mushroom Dad, executive produced by Lena Waithe, premiered to critical acclaim at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Currently, Yuchen Lei is developing a number of projects, including a mind-bending psychological thriller that will mark his feature fiction debut.
A writer and director based in Los Angeles, Rhodes is known for the cult sci-fi film The Gulf of Silence and the erotic thriller short Amatory. Also a fine art photographer and composer, her next feature as a writer and director, the horror epic Threnody, is currently in development.
Funess is a New York-based director, writer, and actor who in 2024 released Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered, which played at festivals such as Panic Fest and Salem Horror Fest. Most recently, he wrote, directed and starred in his sophomore film, The Hedonist, which also ran the festival circuit, with packed showings at Oak Cliff Film Festival, Ridgewood Off-Kilter Film Fest, and Boston Underground, where it won the Audience Choice Award. A grad of Chapman University Dodge College, he’s currently developing multiple projects that range from horror to the absurd.
After 25 years alongside Chris Bender, first at Benderspink and then at Good Fear, Weiner struck out on his own to launch Harvest Hill Entertainment in February. Other notable clients include Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures, Minecraft), David Robert Mitchell (The End of Oak Street, It Follows), Kirill Sokolov (They Will Kill You), New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner (The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits, In Her Shoes), Julian Higgins (God’s Country), Clay Tweel (Gleason), and Jake Emanuel and Will Block (Edge of Sleep). On the production side, Weiner has two upcoming projects from Mitchell: Warner Bros.’ The End of Oak Street, out August 14, where he’s an EP, and his It Follows sequel They Follow for Neon, which he’s producing, with production kicking off next month.
Blair continues to be represented by Range and Allison Binder at GGSSC.
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