Helen Howells
Hoho Entertainment
Helen is the joint Managing Director and co-founder of Hoho Entertainment, a children’s production and rights management company dedicated to developing intellectual properties that are designed to be seen and experienced on all media platforms.
She is a multi-skilled entertainment and brand professional with over 25 years creative, commercial, commissioning, production and brand management experience.
Her key disciplines include Creative Strategy, Content Development & Production, Commissioning and Co-Producing, Budgets and Financing, Digital Content Strategy, Marketing & PR, TV Distribution, Consumer Products and Direct to Consumer Retail strategy. She also has extensive knowledge of both linear and digital content rights as well as other brand and trademark rights.
In addition to her commercial responsibilities at Hoho she also Exec Produces all Hoho’s in-house developed projects and series, such as The Wind in the Willows (currently in production in Scotland for Warner Media), Shane the Chef (commissioned by Channel 5’s Milkshake!) and Cloudbabies.
Helen began her career with S4C International, the commercial arm of the Welsh 4th broadcast channel, where she worked on classic children’s shows such as Fireman Sam and SuperTed.
She later joined US entertainment company, 4 Kids Entertainment as Director of International Licensing and During this time she managed the international licensing rights for hit children’s properties such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with the Nintendo brand and its associated gaming titles.
Before setting up Hoho, Helen spent 7 years at Target Entertainment, a multi genre production and distribution company. Initially tasked with setting up the company’s licensing and merchandising division, she was latterly promoted to Commercial Director overseeing all commercial activities across the kids and brands division. She was responsible for the domestic and international licensing rollout for Fifi and the Flowertots, the UK’s number one pre-school show for girls at the time. She also developed and implemented strategic licensing programmes for Target’s represented brands including Sony PlayStation and its associated video game titles across all platforms and media (e.g. Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, Invizimals, Killzone etc).