Fox’s Cotton picked as Heyday US chief

Nancy Cotton is leaving Fox 21 Television Studios to become US president of new NBCUniversal joint venture prodco Heyday Television.

Cotton (pictured) was senior VP, creative affairs at 21^st Century Fox-owned Fox 21, which is the company that resulted from the merger of cable producer Fox 21 and network production arm Fox Television Studios.

She now joins Heyday TV US, which is a joint venture between film producer David Heyman and NBCU International Studios.

Based in the US, she will be tasked with developing, selling and producing high-end scripted programming that has international appeal.

At Fox 21 TV, Cotton oversaw production and development of shows such as FX’s The Americans, AMC and Netflix drama The Killing and the upcoming USA Networks show Queen of the South, which is based on Latin American scripted format La Reina del Sur. She also developed Showtime pilot The Chi.

Before that, she worked for Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions, where she was head of television, producing Kevin Hill for The CW predecessor UPN and Clubhouse for CBS.

She was also VP, programming at Mandalay Television, and director, drama series at US broadcaster ABC.

“Nancy has an unbridled curiosity and a passion for stories and the people who tell them,” said Heyman. “I couldn’t be more excited to be working with her to support storytellers new and old and to give them a home where they can thrive.”

Heyman, best known as for securing the film rights to the Harry Potter novels, launched Heyday with NBCU last year. His firm has offices in London and LA, and has a pair of series commitments from NBC Entertainment.

Comcast-owned NBCU has international distribution rights to the programming created from the JV.