Executives

MORGAN WANDELL
Senior Vice President, Drama Development, ABC Studios

Morgan Wandell serves as senior vice president, Drama Development for ABC Studios, the television production studio of the Walt Disney Company. In this role Mr. Wandell is responsible for the development of drama programming for the studio, which created international hit franchises "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy." He reports to Julia Franz, executive vice president, ABC Studios.

As head of the Drama Department, Mr. Wandell oversees a team of creative executives who identify, cultivate and develop drama programming for network broadcast and cable exhibition. His recent slate of programming includes the award-winning sensation "Ugly Betty," the compelling critically-acclaimed family saga "Brothers & Sisters," "October Road," third seasons of CBS dramas "Criminal Minds" and Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Ghost Whisperer," and Lifetime's highest rated series, "Army Wives." Joining the drama lineup in 2007/08 are the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, "Private Practice," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Eli Stone," the CW's "Reaper," and Jimmy Smits return to television in "Cane" on CBS.

Prior to joining ABC Studios - then called Touchstone Television - in July of 2004, Mr. Wandell was president of Programming for the Channel One Network. He joined Channel One as executive vice president of Programming in June 2000, returning to where he had begun his television career. Upon his return, he expanded Channel One's production capabilities by creating original programming for The WB and the highly acclaimed series "Breaking It Down with Serena" for MTV.

Before that, Mr. Wandell was vice president of Development for Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), the online entertainment network geared toward Generation Y. In this role he supervised entertainment-based programming, managed the production and execution of video and animation, and hired key creative staff. He also developed and managed key business relationships for new content acquisitions, and was involved with the restructuring of new product areas across the company.

Mr. Wandell also previously worked at Touchstone Television in both the current and development areas. While serving as director, Creative Affairs for Touchstone, he supervised the day-to-day operations of development deals with writers and producers including Jerry Bruckheimer, David Hoberman, Shephard-Robin Productions and Imagine Television. He also managed the creative aspects of studio shows such as "Home Improvement" and "Boy Meets World."

Mr. Wandell began his television career as an intern at Channel One while attending The Claremont Colleges, writing, directing and producing news features for the national news broadcast, including a highly regarded investigative series on child labor practices in Pakistan. While producing for the network, he was the recipient of numerous film and television awards for his work, including a National Educational Media Award, an award from the Chicago International Film Festival and a Telly Award.

A native of Champaign, Illinois, Mr. Wandell holds a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.