Hulu Acquires Exclusive Rights for AwesomenessTV’s Freakish

Horror Series to Join Recently-Acquired Feature Length Documentaries from Awesomeness Films Now Streaming Exclusively on Hulu

SANTA MONICA (April 14, 2016) – Hulu will be the exclusive streaming home to Freakish, a new 10-episode horror series created under the AwesomenessTV banner.  The series is currently in production and will premiere on Hulu later this year.

Freakish centers on a group of students at a small-town high school, who must fight for survival when predatory mutant freaks take over after a meltdown at the local chemical plant. The series stars Leo Howard (Kickin’ It, Shake it Up, Conan the Barbarian), Liza Koshy (Boo! A Madea Halloween), Adam Hicks (Zeke and Luther, Pair of Kings), Aislinn Paul (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Heroes Reborn), Tyler Chase (The Walking Dead), Meghan Rienks (Mr. Student Body

President, Oscar’s Hotel), Melvin Gregg (The Land, Class) and Hayes Grier (ABC’s DWTS). Additional cast members include Chad L. Coleman (The Walking Dead, The Wire), Mary Mouser (Scandal, Body of Proof) and Chachi Gonzales (4.8M fans).

“Our Gen Z audience craves binge-worthy, on-demand entertainment, which is why we’re excited to be in business with Hulu,” said Shelley Zimmerman, executive producer and head of scripted series for AwesomenessTV. “Brian Robbins and I have had a longstanding relationship with Craig Erwich, and we look forward to collaborating with him and his team to bring Freakish to Hulu.”

Freakish was created by Beth Szymkowski, who created and wrote AwesomenessTV’s very first series Runaways. The series is executive produced by Brian Robbins, Shelley Zimmerman, Beth Szymkowski, Matt Lewis, Chris Grismer and produced by Scott Levine. The series pilot was written by Szymkowski and will be directed by Grismer.

In a separate deal, Hulu recently acquired the exclusive U.S. streaming video on-demand rights to two feature length documentaries from Awesomeness Films. Both Snervous, a documentary from YouTube and social media star Tyler Oakley that premiered in theaters and on-demand last year, and Janoskians: Untold and Untrue, an uncensored mockumentary and concert special from the Australian comedy group, are now available to stream only on Hulu.

All titles join Hulu’s rapidly expanding offering of exclusive teen programming, including RocketJump: The Show, the first longform project from Freddie Wong; Dimension 404, a scripted sci-fi anthology from Lionsgate that is currently in production; and all episodes of fan favorite series including The OC, Smallville, Dawson’s Creek and Party of Five.

ABOUT AWESOMENESSTV

AwesomenessTV is a multi-platform media company owned by DreamWorks Animation (Nasdaq: DWA) and Hearst, the latter of which has a 25% interest. Included under the AwesomenessTV banner are AwesomenessTV, a leading destination for original programming serving the global Gen Z audience; the ATV Network, a global creator community; Big Frame, an influencer talent management company; DreamWorksTV; Awestruck; Awesomeness Films; Wildness; as well as consumer products, music and branded entertainment divisions. AwesomenessTV was founded by Brian Robbins (Smallville, Varsity Blues, All That) and Joe Davola (In Living Color, Smallville, MTV Networks). Check out www.awesomenesstv.com.

ABOUT HULU

Hulu is a premium streaming TV destination that offers hundreds of thousands of hours of the best of current season programming, premium original content, films and full seasons of hit series to subscribers with limited commercials for $7.99 per month or commercial free for $11.99 per month. Hulu is the only streaming subscription service that offers current season content from 5 of the 6 largest U.S. broadcast networks. Since its launch in 2008, Hulu has been at the forefront of entertainment and technology and continues to redefine TV by connecting viewers with the stories they love.