{"id":2519180,"date":"2026-07-27T16:04:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2519180"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:04:37","slug":"curiosity-entertainment-enlists-exec-laurie-seidman-and-john-maatta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/curiosity-entertainment-enlists-exec-laurie-seidman-and-john-maatta\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity Entertainment Enlists Exec Laurie Seidman And John Maatta"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> Curiosity Entertainment<\/a> has named former CBS exec Laurie Seidman as its TV and film chief, as the production house and its publishing subsidiary, Storyteller Media<\/a>, unveiled a debut page-to-screen slate.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeideman is named Head of Film & Television, handing her control of Curiosity\u2019s slate. The long serving CBS exec exited her postas Senior Vice President of Current Programming at Paramount\u2019s CBS Entertainment in December last year, having overseen the likes of\u00a0The Talk<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Bull<\/em>.\u00a0She also produced NBC\u2019s drama\u00a0Medium<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe will be in charge of a slate that includes 2008 financial crisis-inspired feature dramedy Goodman<\/a><\/em>, manage series Kaidro: The Awakening<\/em> and YA fantasy series Witches of Calabasas<\/a><\/em> among others. Read on for the full slate, at Curiosity and Storyteller, both of which were co-founded by producer Adhrucia Apana and screenwriter and author Charles Allen in a bid to build a business model based around publishing and screen adaptations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs Curiosity enters its next phase of growth, we wanted a leader who understands both creative development and production,\u201d said Apana. \u201cLaurie has built an exceptional career championing talent, developing successful programming, and bringing projects to the screen. Her experience and leadership make her an outstanding addition to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to work alongside Adhrucia and Charles and see firsthand the company they\u2019re building,\u201d shares Seidman. \u201cThey\u2019re creating a place where original stories and creators are truly valued. I\u2019m excited to help grow the slate and bring these projects to audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso joining Curiosity is veteran media exec John Maatta, former COO of The CW and current Partner at Frost LLP, who will serve as board chair. \u201cCuriosity is building its business around one of the entertainment industry\u2019s most valuable assets \u2013 original intellectual property,\u201d says Maatta. \u201cBy bringing publishing and screen development together, the company is creating opportunities for creators while positioning stories for long-term growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCuriosity and Storyteller, whose books<\/a> are distributed globally by Macmillan, operate by sigining books that are actively pushed as TV, film, gaming and digital platform adaptations. Apana is known as exec producer on the likes of HBO\u2019s\u00a0The Survivor<\/em>, feature film\u00a0Capone<\/em> and John Ridley\u2019s\u00a0Needle in a Timestack<\/em>, while Allen is a screenwriter, author, co-author and editor who previously ran an author and screenwriter IP incubator spanning literary and film.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir plan is for Storyteller to publish 20 to 30 titles annually across children\u2019s, young adult, adult fiction, fantasy, memoir, and graphic novels. Each is selected for its publishing potential while also being developed for expansion film, television, gaming, and other entertainment platforms.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeadlining the slate are a trio of projects. Goodman<\/em>\u00a0is billed as a \u201cDavid-and-Goliath dramedy inspired by true events during the 2008 financial crisis,\u201d with Apana and Allen os co-writers and casting director Robert Ulrich (The Boys<\/em>,\u00a0Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em>) producing, with Jason and Jamie Neese (The Umbrella Academy<\/em>) attached to direct. Production begins this fall.<\/p>\n

\n\tKaidro: The Awakening<\/em>, developed in partnership with Gadget-Bot Productions, is a manga franchise that will be distributed globally through Macmillan, while Witches of Calabasas<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a YA fantasy series from Emmy Award-nominated journalist Frank Elaridi.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditional titles include\u00a0You Don\u2019t Know Dick<\/em>\u00a0by Kristina Denton;\u00a0Pay to Play<\/em>, a political thriller inspired by true events; and\u00a0The Traveling Audience<\/em>, the debut novel from Jason Neese, who produced of The Umbrella Academy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re betting on what technology cannot replace \u2013 authentic\u00a0connections,\u00a0community\u00a0and\u00a0real life experiences,\u201d said Apana. \u201cGreat stories don\u2019t belong in just one medium anymore. We built Curiosity and Storyteller together because we saw an opportunity to bridge publishing and entertainment in a way that gives creators more opportunities while building lasting audiences around original IP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat we\u2019re really doing is putting the artist back at the center of the deal,\u201d added Allen. \u201cPublishing should be the beginning of the journey, not the finish line. Our goal is to help creators build stories that can grow across multiple platforms while keeping them connected to the readers and audiences who discover them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, we reported<\/a> that Storyteller had struck a deal with L.A. publishing house Gungnir for a slate of page to screen titles, including Gina Din\u2019s autobiography,\u00a0Daughter of Africa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAllen founded Storyteller as the publishing arm of Curiosity is collaboration with Apana and Gungnir\u2019s publisher, Matthew Medney.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE: Curiosity Entertainment has named former CBS exec Laurie Seidman as its TV and film chief, as the production house and its publishing subsidiary, Storyteller Media, unveiled a debut page-to-screen slate. Seideman is named Head of Film & Television, handing her control of Curiosity\u2019s slate. The long serving CBS exec exited her postas Senior Vice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2519181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21994,497440,405125,497441,497442,497443],"class_list":["post-2519180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-books","tag-curiosity-entertainment","tag-goodman","tag-kaidro-the-awakening","tag-storyteller-media","tag-witches-of-calabasas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Curiosity-Entertainment-Enlists-Exec-Laurie-Seidman-And-John-Maatta.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519182,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519180\/revisions\/2519182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2519181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}