Australia’s ABC has hired producer Mary-Ellen Mullane as the executive producer of ABC Children’s content.

Starting on October 8, Mullane will commission content for the pubcaster’s two kidsnets ABC KIDS and ABC ME for distribution across TV, radio, digital and third-party platforms, as well as manage the kids’ content produced by ABC. She will also work with indie producers, broadcasters and distributors on series and one-off projects across genres, with the goal of building ABC’s co-production and financing relationships.

Mullane comes into the role after racking up experience in Australian film and TV. Prior to joining the pubcaster, she served as senior commissioning editor at Australian network SBS’s National Indigenous Television channel, where she oversaw the delivery of animation, documentary, VR projects and live-action content. Before that, she worked as the investment development manager for the national documentary program and factual multimedia slate at Screen Australia and was the business affairs manager for Film Australia. She began her career as the COO/CEO of indie content prodco Iris Pictures, where she managed staff across multiple projects and produced a number of social-issue docs, including Our Brother James, Emily’s Eyes and Growing Up and Going Home. 

This also isn’t Mullane’s first foray into kids content. She was previously the producer of NITV’s animated children’s series Little J & Big Cuz (13 x 12 minutes), which debuted in 2018 and was renewed for a second season by ABC KIDS this year. Her credits also include older-skewing content, including the Prix Jeunesse-nominated drama Grace Beside Me, the UN Media Award-winning documentary We Don’t Need a Map and VR project Future Dreaming.

ABC has been busy in the last few months beefing up its kids content team. In June, Libbie Doherty was named its new head of kids, and tasked her with commissioning more than 350 hours of content per year across its children’s channels.