Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Acquires SKR Productions, Sara Rea to Head Unscripted TV

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has acquired Sara Rea’s SKR Productions, the company behind Amazon Studio’s “Making the Cut,” and is installing Rea as its head of unscripted television, marking an expansion into the unscripted space.

Rea is most recently known for her work as showrunner on the Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn-hosted “Making the Cut,” which incorporated an e-commerce element that allowed viewers to buy designers’ creations on Amazon Fashion after the premiere of each episode; their series with Amazon Studios followed a major migration from the trio’s nearly decade of work on “Project Runway.” SKR, which was launched in 2014, has also produced “Project Runway Threads,” “Project Runway Junior,” and “The Naked Truth,” among other series.

“Sara has led an incredibly talented team whose values and goals reflect everything we believe in at Hello Sunshine and I’m inspired by all they have accomplished,” said Witherspoon. “With shows like ‘Making the Cut,’ SKR has bridged television and the consumer experience in such an innovative way, opening up new possibilities for what content can do. I am beyond thrilled to welcome them to our team as we continue to grow and expand our mission to put women and underrepresented voices at the center.”

Rea’s team will be joining her at Hello Sunshine, including Sue Kinkead and Danielle Ghilardi Birckhead. Kinkead will become senior vice president of development, while Birckhead will step into the role of senior vice president of physical production & operations and work alongside Hello Sunshine CFO Liz Jenkins, who has been working to expand the company’s range of in-house physical production services. Tyler O’Neill and Elizabeth Sandroff will join Hello Sunshine as senior directors of development.

“I am inspired by what Reese and the Hello Sunshine team are creating,” said Rea. “That, in conjunction with us having such perfectly aligned goals, has all of us at SKR excited to join Hello Sunshine and grow the unscripted division. This is truly one of those rare one plus one equals ten opportunities, and we can’t wait to get to work.”

Hello Sunshine’s recent unscripted efforts include “Get Organized” on Netflix and upcoming competition series “My Kind of Country” for Apple TV Plus.

“Since launching Hello Sunshine I feel tremendous pride about what our team has done in championing storytelling and storytellers in film, scripted and unscripted television, animation, audio and through Reese’s Book Club,” said Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden. “The response of audiences demonstrates the clear desire for narratives that explore the full range of women’s lived experiences. But we have so much more work to do and in Sara we have found exactly the right leader and partner to accelerate our growth in Unscripted. Sara shares our vision, passion and ambition and brings a fresh, innovate. and creative sensibility to everything she does.”

(Variety)