MasterClass Hires Ben Cotner, Formerly With Netflix and A24, as VP of Creative
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor Documentary filmmaker and producer Ben Cotner has joined celebrity-driven online learning platform MasterClass as vice president of creative, leading the company’s creative and development teams.
Cotner reports to chief content officer Len Amato, the former HBO exec who joined MasterClass a year ago. Cotner joined indie studio A24 in 2019 as head of documentaries where he oversaw the production of “Val” (for Amazon), “Home” Season 2 (Apple TV+) as well as several films currently in post-production including Morgan Neville’s untitled Steve Martin project for Apple TV+.
He will continue to see many of these projects through as a producer or executive producer, according to MasterClass. Cotner comes to MasterClass on the heels of premiering two films at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival: “Underrated: Stephen Curry” directed by Pete Nicks, and “The Deepest Breath,” directed by Laura McGann.
The films were produced by A24 and will be released, respectively, by Apple TV+ and Netflix. Prior to A24, Cotner served as director of original documentaries at Netflix from 2015-19.
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