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Holly Edwards Promoted to President, Skydance Animation

Replacing Bill Damaschke, animation veteran to serve as newly-hired division head John Lasseter’s right hand.

Skydance Animation’s head of production Holly Edwards has been promoted to president, Deadline reports.

Newly hired division head John Lasseter reportedly announced the move to staffers in an informal meeting, noting that he and Skydance Media chief David Ellison made the appointment together.

Edwards will take over from Bill Damaschke, who previously held the title and is reportedly leaving the studio. She will “serve as Lasseter’s right-hand,” directing the business aspects of Skydance Animation’s  production activities for the studio’s entire slate, leaving Lasseter to focus on the creative side of the business.

Holly Edwards

Skydance Animation’s first feature is Luck, which is set to be released in theaters by Paramount Pictures in March 2021.

An animation veteran with more than 20 years producing features and television, Edwards has been at Skydance since the company formed in 2017. Prior to that, she worked at DreamWorks Animation, where managed various aspects of production across three of the studio’s locations for all of DWA’s production slate, including Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Monsters vs Aliens, and How to Train Your Dragon. She also served as co-producer on Trolls, unit producer on Penguins of Madagascar, and associate producer for Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Megamind.

The promotion comes a little more than a month after Lasseter was hired to oversee Skydance’s animation division, a move that sparked backlash throughout the industry. The former Pixar and Disney Animation chief creative officer, who took a six-month leave of absence from the two studios a little more than a year ago for acknowledged but unspecified “missteps,” was hired by Skydance just days after his consulting contract with Disney concluded at the end of 2018.

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.