Universal Television has named Mike Clements as its new executive vice president of Comedy Development and Jim Donnelly as senior vice president, Comedy Development.
Clements will report to President of Universal Television Bela Bajaria, while Donnelly will report to Clements, the network announced on Monday.
“Mike Clements is an extremely well-regarded comedy executive,” Bajaria said. “In addition to being very supportive and collaborative with writers, he is excited about helping us launch great comedies.”
Clements has a long history on the comedy side, most recently at animation studio Bento Box where he was head of creative development and original programing. During his time there, Clements served as the co-created “The Legends of Chamberlain Heights,” which received a 10-episode order from Comedy Central this spring.
Previously he was President of Tom Werner‘s Good Humor Television. He also executive produced “The Life & Times of Tim” for HBO, “Good Vibes” for MTV and “Are You There, Chelsea?” for NBC.
Before joining the producing side of television in 2006, Clements spent 14 years as a network comedy executive during the early stages of both Fox and the WB, working on series that include “Married with Children,” “The Simpsons,” “Mad TV,” “King of the Hill,” “That ’70s Show,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment” and “Reba.”
Donnelly most recently served as VP of comedy development at CBS Studios, where he shepherded several series, including “The Odd Couple,” “The Millers” and the upcoming series “Angel From Hell” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Previously he was at Paramount Television and CBS Productions on the comedy side as well.
“I have a longtime relationship with Jim and know firsthand how well he works with the creative community,” Bajaria said. “He’ll be a great addition to our strong comedy team, which includes our talented VP of comedy, Dan Shear.”
Universal Television is one of the largest television production companies in the United States. The studio currently produces nearly 20 primetime series as well as late night and reality programs for a variety of network, cable, and digital platforms, including “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Mindy Project,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Chicago Fire” and “Bates Motel,” and all of NBC’s late-night programs.
Universal Television is a division of NBCUniversal.