HBO’s Vice is parting ways with its longtime showrunner.
BJ Levin has been named senior vp of development at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s Wilshire Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The unscripted sister studio of Universal Cable Productions, Levin will oversee all development and sales of original, non-scripted programming. He will be based in Los Angeles and report to Dawn Olmstead, executive vp of development at UCP and Wilshire Studios.
A two-time Emmy winner, Levin served as showrunner and executive producer on HBO’s weekly newsmagazine Vice for its first four seasons. He also exec produced several episodes of Vice’s original series Gaycation and Black Market With Michael K. Williams. His other credits include Project Runway and MTV’s Made.
“BJ’s background in bold and daring non-scripted television is what drew us to him,” Olmstead said Tuesday in a statement. “He has been at the forefront of groundbreaking, intelligent docuseries and will be a great asset as we head into that direction at Wilshire.”
Added Levin: “I’m incredibly excited to join the Wilshire Studios team and to begin building an ambitious slate of new programming.”
Wilshire Studios produces E!’s long-running Live From the Red Carpet series as well as such docuseries as Giuliana and Bill and Ice Loves Coco.
