Speaker Nancy Kanter

Speaker Nancy Kanter


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Nancy Kanter

President

Available Light Productions

Nancy Kanter has been a leader in the creation of Kids and Family content for more than 20 years. In January of 2021 she left her role as Executive Vice President, Content and Creative Strategy for Disney Channels Worldwide to return to her long held passion for producing innovative programming under an exclusive deal with Netflix where she will produce movies and series for kids and families.

As EVP at Disney Channel her responsibilities included spearheading the content strategy that guided the development of original live-action and animated programming for kids ages 2-14. She was instrumental in attracting, developing and retaining creative talent which, coupled with her role in restructuring the business across live action and animation, led to a robust slate of content for the linear network and Disney+ from the industry’s most innovative talent.

She launched original series and movies that are among the most watched for K6 –14 in recent years including the #1 movie on cable for 2019, Descendants 3, and the highly successful High School Musical: The Musical: The Series for Disney+. In addition she led the development for Disney+ of Monsters at Work -- a sequel to Pixar’s Monsters Inc and the feature length Phineas & Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe for Disney+.

The content created under Kanter’s leadership is unprecedented in terms of industry acclaim having won awards from nearly every entertainment organization including Emmy, Annie, NAACP, IMAGEN, Environmental Media, GLAAD and Peabody Awards.

While focused on the creative resurgence of content for DCWW, Kanter also spearheaded the expansion of Disney Channel and Disney Junior content into more experiential and pro social areas. Numerous efforts to connect the content with messages important to kids and families created unprecedented brand and content awareness resulting in real world impact in the areas of ethnic/cultural identity, LGBTQ acceptance, epilepsy research, anxiety disorder, gun safety and children’s health.

Prior to joining Disney Channel, Kanter was president, Bluecow.com, an internet site for children's entertainment and early learning. Previously she was an Executive Producer for Sesame Workshop, where she supervised the development and production of more than 30 Sesame Street specials and direct-to-video projects, including the Emmy Award-winning "Elmo Saves Christmas."

Kanter started her career as a film editor for film and television (for which she won an Emmy Award). She was mentored by the legendary film editor, Dede Allen and worked closely with ground-breaking directors Jonathan Demme, Kathryn Bigelow, Arthur Penn and Sidney Lumet. She edited several award-winning documentary films for public television and HBO. Additionally, she served as an adjunct professor of film at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY).

A native of New York, Kanter graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in film and theatre. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and has served on its Board of Governors. She currently is a board member of the Hollywood Health & Society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and serves on the Advisory Council for the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers.

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