Shari Hanson’s position has been upped to the role of EVP physical production and visual effects at Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation.
In her new role, Hanson will continue her work on Paramount’s live-action features, while expanding into the realm of hybrid animation/live-action titles at Nickelodeon. The industry veteran came to Paramount in 2015, most recently serving as SVP physical production. Prior to her time at the studio, she worked as a freelance producer and VFX producer for over eight years. She previously spent nearly 13 years as a VFX producer at Industrial Light & Magic, having launched her career within the realm of advertising.
Worldwide physical production at Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios president Lee Rosenthal announced Hanson’s promotion today.
Here is his memo that circulated internally at Paramount and Nick:
Dear Team,
As our organization continues to move forward with the overall strategy for aligning and optimizing the production groups across Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios, I want to share an exciting update with you.
I am proud to announce that Shari Hanson, an exemplary executive, and invaluable member of our team, is being promoted to executive VP of physical production and visual effects for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation. In addition to her work on Paramount’s live-action films, Shari’s portfolio will expand to include our hybrid animation/live-action titles produced at Nick Animation.
As we all know, Shari is a great physical production executive and trusted partner to our producers, as witnessed on The Lost City, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Gemini Man and Crawl. With this newly created hybrid role, we have an amazing opportunity to bridge our VFX and production work in unique, collaborative ways moving forward. Given her thirty-year track record in production and VFX and strong, trusting filmmaker relationships, I have no doubt Shari will elevate our VFX operations as we continue to ramp up our slates in ’23-’24 and beyond.
Prior to joining us as a physical production executive in 2015, Shari worked with Paramount on several of its most beloved franchise properties. After beginning her career in advertising, her passion for visual storytelling led her to Industrial Light & Magic in 1994 where she moved up the production ladder on over 200 commercials, music videos and feature films. During an era of immense visual effects innovation, Shari was a visual effects producer for several groundbreaking films such as Hulk, The Day After Tomorrow, The Island, Mission: Impossible 3 and Transformers. Building on her filmmaker and studio relationships, she transitioned to freelance and continued to VFX produce, associate produce and co-produce tentpole films such as Star Trek, the Oscar®-winning Rango, The Lone Ranger and Terminator Genysis. Shari has worked repeatedly with many of the industry’s most revered directors including Ang Lee, JJ Abrams, Michael Bay and Gore Verbinski.
It’s incredible to think how much we’ve accomplished as a studio since the start of the year, and I’m just so grateful and proud to be part of this team. I hope everyone is really feeling our momentum and understands how important our expertise is to the broader organization.
Thank you to everyone for your commitment, hard work and passion — and please join me in congratulating Shari on this new role!
Lee