Exclusive: Sirens Media grows development team with two hires

ITV America’s Sirens Media (Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Snap’s Honestly Loren and Nikita Unfiltered) is expanding its development team with two hires.

Sirens president Mioshi Hill has tapped veteran producer Melissa Purner (pictured, left) as vice president of development, while Tavi Kaunitz (right) has been hired as manager of development.

Purner joins the company with a background in production and development for both unscripted and scripted content across all formats and genres.

Most recently, she developed, sold and produced HBO Max’s Happily Ever Avatar as well as an upcoming unscripted series for Snap.

Purner was previously head of digital, social media and unscripted at Mark Wahlberg’s Leverage Management, where she developed a multitude of projects and served as social producer for HBO’s Ballers. Purner has also worked on the development teams at MTV, WME, Herzog & Company and Endemol, where she helped launch Endemol Digital Studios.

Kaunitz previously spent several years on the talent and development team at Comedy Central, working across the network’s programming lineup, including the Emmy-nominated Drunk History, Corporate and Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, among myriad other projects, including digital series.

Before Comedy Central, Kaunitz worked at The Gersh Agency, overseeing personal appearances and live events for high-profile talent.

“Melissa and Tavi each bring their own unique and wonderful flavor of creative energy and perspective to the team,” Hill said in a statement. “As we prep a wave of new series with dynamic talent from various backgrounds and fields, it’s a tremendous advantage to have such well-rounded and innovative minds among our ranks.”

Los Angeles-based Sirens Media has produced titles such as Netflix’s The Wedding Coach and TBS’s Lost Resort, with projects currently in development for partners including Nat Geo, Discovery, Viacom and NBCUniversal, among others.

ITV America is part of ITV Studios.