MUMBAI: Universal Television has named Mike Clements as its new executive vice president of comedy development and Jim Donnelly as senior vice president, comedy development.

Clements will report to Universal Television president Bela Bajaria, while Donnelly will report to Clements.

Bajaria said, “Mike Clements is an extremely well-regarded comedy executive. In addition to being very supportive and collaborative with writers, he is excited about helping us launch great comedies. We are pleased to bring him on board to head comedy at the studio where we remain committed to producing innovative and smart break-out comedies.”  

She added, “We’re additionally thrilled that Jim Donnelly has joined us from CBS Studios. I have a longtime relationship with Jim and know firsthand how well he works with the creative community. He’ll be a great addition to our strong comedy team, which includes our talented VP of comedy, Dan Shear.”

Clements has a long history on the comedy side, most recently at animation studio Bento Box where he was head of creative development and original programing. Previously he was president of Tom Werner’s Good Humor Television. Before joining the producing side of television in 2006, Clements spent 14 years as a network comedy executive during the early stages of both Fox and the WB. He began his television career at NBC as an assistant in the photo department.

Donnelly most recently served as VP of comedy development at CBS Studios. Previously he was at Paramount Television and CBS Productions on the comedy side as well.