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WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Names Co-Heads of Animation to Replace Gray Haddock

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Rooster Teeth’s Joe Clary and Sean Hinz are the new co-heads of its animation studio, replacing replace Gray Haddock, who recently left the company after he was moved out of his role as head of Animation earlier this year.

The WarnerMedia-owned company, whose animated series include “gen:Lock,” “RWBY” and “Red vs. Blue,” promoted from within in naming producers Clary and Hinz as co-heads of Rooster Teeth Animation. The duo will jointly lead day-to-day operations across all of Rooster Teeth’s animated productions.

In addition, Rooster Teeth announced that Doreen Copeland has been promoted to VP, head of production; previously her title was VP, head of production operations after she moved over earlier this fall from heading live-action for Rooster Teeth Studios. Clary and Hinz will report to Copeland, who will now oversee all physical production at Rooster Teeth.

The new appointments come after Haddock stepped down in June as head of Rooster Teeth Animation to take on a strictly creative role; that followed complaints by employee in the animation group about arduous work schedules, according to then-CEO Matt Hullum. Then in September, Haddock said in a tweet that he had recently “parted ways” with Rooster Teeth after eight years with the company. In a subsequent Twitter post , Haddock said he was “upset with where some company strategy and messaging went” but claimed he had discussed relinquishing operational duties at Rooster Teeth Animation starting in early 2018.

Also in September, Rooster Teeth laid off 13% of its staff . After the job cuts, Rooster Teeth announced a senior leadership shakeup, announcing TV veteran Jordan Levin as CEO as part of a reorg in which co-founders Hullum, Geoff Ramsey and Burnie Burns took on new creative roles at the company.

Over the summer, Rooster Teeth enlisted Margaret M. Dean, head of studio at Otter Media’s Crunchyroll and president of Women in Animation, to consult on Rooster Teeth’s animation projects and help select new leadership for RT Animation. Dean will continue to consult for Rooster Teeth going forward, the company said.

Copeland, over her 25-year career, has produced a range of projects, including live broadcasts, commercials, short films, documentaries and feature films after she got her start producing training and education videos. At Rooster Teeth, she produced live-action projects including “Lazer Team,” “Lazer Team 2” and “Day 5.”

Clary previously served as lead producer for “RWBY” Volumes 6 and 7. He came to Rooster Teeth with more than a decade of production experience working in live-action, animation, VFX and post-production including producing spots and trailers for NFL Network, “Call of Duty” and “Zombieland.”

Hinz most recently served as a producer in Rooster Teeth Animation, managing production teams for “RTAA” and “Death Battle.” Before joining Rooster Teeth, he managed various productions for web-based media companies including video-game media company ScrewAttack (which was acquired by Fullscreen before moving over to Rooster Teeth).

Rooster Teeth’s ultimate owner is AT&T, which moved Otter Media, which houses Rooster Teeth, under the WarnerMedia Entertainment division earlier this year.

Rooster Teeth recently announced season 2 of “gen:Lock,” starring Michael B. Jordan, which will premiere in 2020 on WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and have an exclusive 90-day window on the service after which the series will be available on Rooster Teeth’s First subscription-streaming service.

Pictured above (l. to r.): Joe Clary, Sean Hinz, Doreen Copeland

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