Insider Interviews

Warner Bros.’ Shaleen Desai is Very Animated About Good Storytelling

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Episode notes

Shaleen Desai is like a caped crusader for content. This SVP of Adult Animation is super focused on solid stories and shares how he is bringing super heroes and more to animation...and beyond. In his career of 20+ years and counting, Desai has been with NBC and Letterman, CMT, and Fox 21. He went from Jason Bateman at Aggregate to Warners Brothers Animation to iterate "Batman" and other IP. Overall, whether it's animated or audio his focus is making sure content will resonate anywhere as just good storytelling!

While Insider Interviews listeners heard from Desai in Epi 33 from a panel with host E.B. Moss for NATPE's ContentCast, in this episode 36 Desai gets to go more in-depth on how Warner Bros. Animation and Blue Ribbon Content tap top talent -- from creative development to stars behind the mics. For example, when you hear those words, "I'm Batman" in a forthcoming scripted podcast it might be spoken seriously by Winston Duke on Spotify (https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/batman-unburied-winston-duke-jason-isaacs-spotify-podcast-1235028205/ ) ... or by a campier Jeffrey Wright in a version called Batman the Audio Adventures headed to HBO Max on 9/18 (which is (who knew?!) "Batman Day"!) And of course, there's always the animated version: Batman, Caped Crusader is headed to Cartoon Network and HBO Max soon.

But Desai is focused on more than super heroes. He's also developing new approaches to content, dabbling in AI and more short digital films and podcasts through Blue Ribbon, and always working to just identify the next good story that can live, well, anywhere!