SINGAPORE — WarnerMedia has boosted its HBO Asia Originals team, appointing industry veteran May-Yi Lee as the lead of Development & Production – Unscripted, while Garon De Silva has been named the new lead of Development & Production – Scripted.
Taiwan-based Lee is an award-winning executive producer who has worked with Asian storytellers on hundreds of productions over more than 20 years. She joins WarnerMedia from National Geographic where she joined forces with creative talent across Southeast Asia, Japan, and China.
Magdalene Ew, Head of Content – Entertainment at WarnerMedia in India, Southeast Asia, and Korea, said: “As we continue to grow our team, May-Yi will be integral to our search and development of quality unscripted programming. With her rich experience and industry connections, she will be able to deliver against our considerable ambitions, especially in the documentary and reality TV genres. At the same time, Garon will now focus entirely on scripted originals. He is tasked with expanding our slate of original Asian scripted entertainment and leading the team that brings to life the region’s best stories.”
One of Lee’s many notable projects include the Extreme China series, which was ranked in the top-10 Most Influential Documentaries in China by Guangming Daily (2018) and was named Best Direction and Best Documentary Series at the 2019 Asian Academy Creative Awards. Other credits include Jackie Chan’s Green Heroes, Cesar’s Recruit Asia, and Taiwan: Island of Fish.
A founding member of the HBO Asia Originals team, De Silva has overseen the development of scripted HBO Asia Originals including Dream Raider (2020), Invisible Stories (2020) Food Lore (2019) Folklore (2018) Grisse (2018) Halfworlds S2 (2017), The Teenage Psychic (2017) and Sent (2017). He was also co-creator and showrunner for Grace (2014) and Halfworlds S1 (2015).
Upcoming originals include documentary Traffickers: Inside The Golden Triangle, period drama Legacy, Season 2 of the horror series Folklore, Thai young-adult drama Forbidden and Season 3 of anthology series Halfworlds. The Chinese drama Trinity of Shadows is currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO GO.
