He’s at the start of his Underknown adventure, but we’re thrilled to announce that Connor Boals is officially on team Underknown. Connor brings a storyteller’s spirit and years of experience in digital video to the Underknown team. He’s worked as a video producer for major platforms like CNN, Reuters, NowThis and even launched Great Big Story’s first international bureau. As VP, Content Strategy & Development with Underknown, Connor will focus on developing full-length digital video streaming content for the up-and-coming Underknown Studios.
Underknown was a perfect fit for Connor, who puts his heart and soul into building digital brands that resonate with audiences. He’s seen many beloved brands fold. Underknown, for him, was an entirely different model, being profitable from a programmatic business standpoint right off the bat: “This is a home run. Steve and his leadership and his team have figured out what I’d started to think was impossible: creating a new media digital brand on the platforms where people are watching content and making money doing it. And not just making money, but making money in which [Steve] is able to provide solid growth opportunities for his staff. I was really intrigued.”
Connor will be working to develop full-length versions of the content Underknown audiences already know and love for streaming platforms. “I want to take Underknown storytelling everywhere. We dominate the social publishing space, so where else can we be and where do we need to be?”
Connor says the answer is any place people will sit down, fire up their streaming services and “find something that will tickle that same curious part of their brain that our bite-sized content does.”
CEO Steve Hulford is just as excited to have Connor on board.
“We loved working with him. We loved his ability to pitch and to do development work. He’s a great storyteller and his ability to put that into a pitch deck and pitch commissioning editors is proven,” Steve says.
“We had worked with him in a freelance capacity in 2021. His goal and his mission this year is to develop six shows that we can pitch to streamers. Underknown Studios is going to be focused on taking the intellectual property— the IP— that we have. The nine brands we have, What If, How To Survive, now Aperture and all the rest, to develop those into programs we can pitch to streamers.”
On top of existing brands, Steve says he and Connor will work to “develop new IP which aligns with our mission of educating the world about science and the humanities.”
Check out Connor on Linkedin.
