Bill Schultz (producer)

Bill Schultz (born June 11, 1960) is an animation producer. He was born in New York City and grew up in River Forest, a suburb near Chicago, Illinois, moving to Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Illinois Champaign - Urbana Campus. He has worked on television shows such as Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, The Transformers, and produced others, notably The Simpsons and King of the Hill and now the founder and CEO of Home Plate Entertainment. Schultz started Home Plate Entertainment in 2010, after stepping down from his 12 year partnership with Moonscoop LLC (f/k/a Mike Young Productions (MYP) and Taffy entertainment, the US based arm of French animation studio Moonscoop SAS.

Career

His first job in LA found him working for Capitol Records, which after 9 months he left to work with an independent film producer, and then to work as a production assistant and production staffer on several low budget live action feature films. He eventually got a job at Columbia Pictures Television, working on primetime TV series such as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and TJ Hooker.

In 1986 Schultz moved from Santa Barbara (TV series) Production Staff to help with the management of Marvel Productions. Schultz worked on titles such as Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, The Transformers, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and My Little Pony 'n Friends among others.

Introduced to veteran Animation Director Phil Roman in late 1986, Schultz was hired as VP of Production and Development of Film Roman. In 1988 the new management team developed, sold and produced Bobby's World and Zazoo U. As Executive Vice President at Film Roman for nine years, schultz managed the growth of the studio, serving as a producer for 6 seasons on two FOX primetime series, The Simpsons and King of the Hill.

He has even worked on almost every Film Roman cartoon including The Critic, Garfield and Friends, Garfield TV specials, The Mask, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, C-Bear and Jamal, Bruno the Kid, Mortal Kombat, Richie Rich, Klutter!, Cro, Mighty Max, Mother Goose and Grimm, Nick and Noel, The Bears Who Saved Christmas, Animated Classic Showcase and Tom and Jerry: The Movie.

After nine years of running the company and 18 months after taking the company public (in 1995) Schultz left to find new opportunities. He started work with LA based independent animator Mike Young, producing Voltron: The Third Dimension and forming an ongoing partnership which exists today. In addition, he was contacted by Cartoon Network's Linda Simensky and asked to come to Atlanta to meet with the Network's management team, including head Betty Cohen, GM Rob Sorcher, Mike Lazzo and Simensky. Schultz was hired to help the network set up its own Cartoon Network Studios located in Burbank, California, as well as act as the Supervising Producer for the network on its non-Hanna Barbera series, including Ed, Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog and others. Schultz continued his relationship with the network up until 2002.

In 2005, Schultz and his partners at MYP merged the Los Angeles-based company with leading French entertainment company and animation studio Moonscoop Group. Together, the group can boast a library of over 3000 half hours of first-class animation. With a focus on the global market, Taffy Entertainment, the worldwide brand management and distribution arm for MYP and Moonscoop, now sells the combined Moonscoop/MYP programming to all of the leading broadcasters, licensees and retailers around the world.

While working at Taffy Entertainment, Schultz successfully launched Kabillion, a new multi-platform kids entertainment service, in January 2017. The Platform was developed in conjunction with New Jersey-based REMIX Entertainment Ventures and Comcast. Together the partners raised three million dollars to launch the network. Kabillion is available both as a free video on-demand (VOD) channel and a free online broadband site. Through its cable partnerships, Kabillion offers high-quality animated and live-action kids’ series entertainment to over 13 million US households on VOD and 50 million US households online. The initial Kabillion lineup included the Taffy-distributed series Pet Alien, produced by Mike Young Prods., and Mix Master: King of Cards, an anime series based on the trading card game craze. Taffy’s library of more than 3,000 half hours of animation are also included on the site. Kabillion is owned in part by Taffy Entertainment, East Coast-based REMIX Entertainment Ventures and Germany’s EM.Entertainment.

While serving as the CEO of Kabillion, Schultz launched a new cross promotion with uWink, Inc.. UWink, a new interactive restaurant that allowed customers to order food, drinks, games and other digital media at their table through proprietary touch screen terminals was founded by Nolan Bushnell, former founder and CEO of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's. Under the agreement, uWink offered new Kabillion-branded video games for kids, in addition to kids’ meals featuring characters from Kabillion’s animated programs, as well as high-quality toys and plush from Taffy Entertainment, the parent company of Kabillion.

Schultz also serves as executive producer on MYP's latest productions, including Hero:108, which is a co-production with Cartoon Network, Growing Up Creepie for Discovery Kids/Nickelodeon, I Got a Rocket!, and the pre-school CGI series Dive Olly Dive!, as well as returning series Pet Alien and ToddWorld. In addition, Schultz was nominated for an Daytime Emmy Award in 2007 as a song writer, along with co-writers, Mike Himmelstein and Al Jarreau, for their song, "Take a Look Inside," which is featured in the ToddWorld series.

In late September 2010, the industry veteran launched global animation studio; Home Plate Entertainment. The studio is structured to provide a range of top level IP Development, Financing, Producing, and Distribution services to partners and clients all over the world. Bill is currently working with leading adult animation studio Mondo Media on the launch of their recently announced Mondo Premium channel on the Chernin/AT & T owned “VRV” SVOD platform. He also works extensively with market leading, global studio Prime Focus Animation, devoting substantial time to helping develop and produce its growing slate of new, high quality CGI projects, in both Television and Feature Films. At Home Plate, Schultz is able to continue to expedite and assist in the production of numerous properties while using not only his creative and technical talent, but his years of experience.

Since then, Schultz has continued to build Home Plate Entertainment by exploring new directions for the company. Home Plate has gone on to pursue not only numerous animated properties, but live action as well. Schultz continues to explore the possibilities of partnering with creators, producers, and other companies worldwide. Some of his most recent ventures include a Netflix original series entitled "True and the Rainbow Kingdom", a Chinese feature film based on the classic novel, Romance of The Three Kingdoms, entitled "The 12 guardians", and a stop motion feature produced in conjunction with China Film Group entitled, "Codename Housewife".

Schultz has won two Daytime Emmy Awards (for I Got a Rocket! and Jakers) and two Primetime Emmy Awards (for The Simpsons). His other awards include the Humanitas Prize (for Toddworld), a BAFTA (for Jakers!), the Pulcinella (for Growing Up Creepie), and the HUGO award (for Toddworld).