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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Family Productions Promotes Patti Jackson and Ellen Cockrill to Senior Vice Presidents of Production

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Family Productions Promotes Patti Jackson and Ellen Cockrill to Senior Vice Presidents of Production

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of an ongoing strategy to build and enhance its production efforts, Universal Studios Home Entertainment Family Productions (USHEFP) has promoted Patti Jackson to Senior Vice President, Live Action Production and Ellen Cockrill to Senior Vice President, Animation Production, it was announced today by Glenn Ross, General Manager and Executive Vice President. Ms. Jackson and Ms. Cockrill, who both previously served as Vice Presidents at Universal, will continue to report to Mr. Ross and be based at the studio's Universal City headquarters.

Ms. Jackson will continue to oversee the development and production of live-action family fare, while Ms. Cockrill will supervise all animated series and movies for the group.

Mr. Ross commented: "As USHEFP continues to aggressively augment its brand and create new velocity in the family entertainment arena, we are extremely fortunate to have two brilliant senior production executives in Patti and Ellen, who have clearly distinguished themselves in the areas of live-action and animation, respectively. In addition to their immense creativity and unparalleled understanding of the made-for-DVD marketplace, they each have demonstrated a rare ability to successfully take a project from idea to completed product, time and time again."

Ms. Jackson joined Universal Home Entertainment Productions in 1993 as Director of Programming and was promoted to Vice President of Production in 1996. During her tenure, she developed scripts, identified talent and supervised production for live action, made-for-DVD movies. Projects developed and produced under her purview include the forthcoming "American Pie Presents: Band Camp," "Bring it On Again," "Darkman II: The Return of Durant," "Skulls II & III" (with producer Neal Moritz), "Beethoven's 3rd," "Beethoven's 4th" and the award-winning documentary "Beyond the Mat" (with Imagine Entertainment).

Prior to joining Universal, Ms. Jackson was Vice President of Entertainment at J2 Communications/National Lampoon, where she oversaw acquisitions, development and production. Projects she produced included the video "Rich Little Scams on Golf," pilots "National Lampoon's Pop Off" and "National Lampoon's True Facts" and the feature film "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon".

Before J2, Jackson was an independent producer developing and producing direct-to-video programs, television pilots, documentaries, theatrical shorts and educational films for a wide variety of distributors including Universal, New World, Vestron and Goodtimes. She also served as West Coast Editor of Children's Video Magazine and a contributing editor and marketing consultant for Sports Journal.

Ms. Cockrill began her tenure with Universal in 1996, having most recently served as Vice President, Television Programming for Universal Home Entertainment Productions and Universal Cartoon Studios. In that capacity, she identified and developed animated television product, securing its national distribution and supervising its production. Children's series she developed included "The New Woody Woodpecker Show" for Fox Kids, "The Mummy: The Animated Series" for "KidsWB!" and the forthcoming Cartoon Network series "The Land Before Time," based on the wildly successful film franchise, and the widely anticipated "Curious George" animated television series that will launch on PBS in fall 2006.

Prior to joining Universal, Ms. Cockrill spent four years as Executive Director of Development for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, producing projects including the Oscar(R)-nominated animated short film "The Chicken from Outer Space," which served as pilot to the Cartoon Network's "Courage the Cowardly Dog" series, and the Annie Award-nominated "Johnny Bravo" pilot, also for Cartoon Network.

Prior Hanna-Barbera, Ms. Cockrill worked at the Samuel Goldwyn Company as a Story Editor. She began her entertainment industry career as a Development Coordinator for Walt Disney Television. She holds a B.A. in communications from the University of Washington.

The USHEFP banner, which includes Universal Animation Studios, develops, produces, and acquires live-action and animated family productions directly for the home entertainment and television markets.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is a part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal.

CONTACTS:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment Publicity
Vivian Mayer
Senior Vice President, Publicity
(818) 777-3594

Lea Porteneuve
Vice President, Publicity
(818) 777-1391

Source: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

CONTACT: Vivian Mayer Senior Vice President, Publicity, +1-818-777-3594,
or Lea Porteneuve, Vice President, Publicity, +1-818-777-1391, both of
Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Web site: http://www.universalstudios.com/

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