On the heels of resigning from his president and chief creative officer position at Thunderbird Entertainment and its Atomic Cartoons subsidiary at the end of May, Matt Berkowitz will be starting in a new job at Netflix as director of animation for its preschool + kids team on July 1. 

He will be responsible for developing and producing programming for Netflix’s youngest viewers, reporting to Heather Tilert (also a director of animation for preschool + kids), who joined the company in 2018. 

Berkowitz spent a total of eight years at Thunderbird/Atomic, most recently serving as president and chief creative officer. During his tenure, he executive produced some of the studio’s biggest kids and family series, including The Last Kids on Earth, Hello Ninja and Princess Power (all for Netflix) and two new shows that will launch in 2025—Mermicorno: Starfall (for Max) and Super Team Canada (for Canadian streamer Crave). 

Before joining Atomic as head of development in 2016, Berkowitz was a VP of creative and business development at LA-based Arc Productions (formerly Starz Animation). As an independent he produced a family-friendly animated feature called Extinct (2021), with Tolerable Entertainmnet, Cinesite, HB Wink and China Lion, which released in theaters in some territories and Netflix released it in others.