Alex Piper, formerly YouTube’s head of unscripted originals, is moving on from the video giant for a new gig leading Night Studios, the newly created content division of talent-management company Night Inc.
At Night, whose clients include massively popular YouTube creator MrBeast, Piper will be in charge of unscripted, scripted, animated and documentary programming.
Piper’s departure from YouTube comes after it wound down the original content group earlier this year. His boss at YouTube, Susanne Daniels, global head of original content, left the company in March. YouTube is still funding some original content projects, including as part of its Black Voices and YouTube Kids initiatives.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the amazing team at Night Media to lead the launch of Night Studios, Piper said in a statement. “I believe we are incredibly well positioned to drive innovative content that will entertain, engage and inspire on a global scale.”
In addition to MrBeast (real name: Jimmy Donaldson) — who has some 94 million YouTube subscribers across his channels — Night Inc. represents big digital creators including Safiya Nygaard (9.3 million subscribers) and Preston (20 million subscribers). Based in L.A. and Austin, Texas, the company has been operating a venture studio which has incubated companies such as Feastables and Creative Juice. Last year, Night launched its creator-backed $20 million venture capital fund, Night Ventures.
Piper joined the YouTube Originals team in 2019. Before that, he spent over five years at Fox Broadcasting, where he most recently served as VP of alternative entertainment and led development for special events and series including “So You Think You Can Dance.” Prior to Fox, Piper was SVP of alternative television for Asylum Entertainment, where he helped develop, launch and oversee the company’s unscripted slate.