Producers David Hill and Reginald Hudlin announced 14 key members of the production team for the 88th Oscars on Friday.
This year, Glenn Weiss makes his Oscar telecast debut as director. Weiss has directed numerous televised events, including 15 Tony Awards shows, for which he has garnered three directing Emmys.
Weiss’ other directing credits include the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, the Billboard Music Awards, and the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Supervising producer Michael Seligman has more than 300 major television events to his credit and has earned 13 Emmy nominations, including 11 for his work on Oscar telecasts.
The Oscars are also bringing in three new consulting producers to the telecast: Cindy Hauser, Nicolle Yaron and Chris Pizzi.
Hauser is the screens and content producer. She will be overseeing the creation of several on-screen visuals, including the In Memoriam segment. For more than a decade, Hauser has worked in graphics and visual displays as well as produced several high-profile live events.
Yaron makes her Oscar debut as the element producer and will be coordinating with the Academy on social media. Her credits include “The Voice,” for which she received an Emmy Award as a senior supervising producer.
Pizzi, this year’s insert producer, will be working with Lori Margules, who is the consulting producer on nomination packages. Pizzi is a three-time Sports Emmy-winning producer for NFL, PGA and NASCAR studio shows for FOX Sports.
Production designer Derek McLane returns to the Oscars for a fourth consecutive year, after earning an Emmy nomination for his work on each of the previous telecasts and winning in 2014. His other television credits include “The Wiz Live!,” “Peter Pan Live!” and “The Sound of Music Live!”
Fatima Robinson rejoins the production team as show choreographer. She previously worked on the 79th and 81st Oscar telecasts, and also choreographed Pharrell Williams‘s performance of “Happy” for the 86th Oscars.
Billy Kimball makes his Oscar debut this year as head writer. He has previously written for the Governors Awards and was the writer on the “Independent Spirit Awards” nine times. Kimball is currently a writer and consulting producer on the HBO comedy series “Veep.”
Byron Phillips is the Oscar telecast’s supervising music producer. Phillips has developed and produced content and strategic plans for television, film and music platforms. Earlier this month, he served as the co-executive producer of the 47th NAACP Image Awards after producing the organization’s previous three shows.
Harold Wheeler returns for his third Oscar telecast, his first as music director. An accomplished orchestrator, composer, conductor, record producer and arranger, Wheeler has received numerous Emmy and Tony Award nominations as well as an NAACP Theatre Award for lifetime achievement.
Talent producer Taryn Hurd rejoins the Oscar telecast team for the third consecutive year. She also has served as talent producer on events including the past two Governors Awards ceremonies, “Red Nose Day,” “Think It Up,” the FOX network’s “New Year’s Eve Live,” the Breeders’ Cup telecast, “Teen Choice 2013” and “VH1 Divas Salute the Troops.”
Lightning designer Robert Dickinson returns for his 26th Oscar show. He has won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for Oscar telecasts.
The 88th Oscars will be held on Feb. 28, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and will be televised live on ABC beginning at 7 p.m ET/4 p.m. PT.