{"id":260238,"date":"2025-10-30T06:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/260238\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T06:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:26:10","slug":"paramount-animation-chief-ramsey-naito-part-of-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/260238\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Animation Chief Ramsey Naito Part of Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs Paramount begins cleaning house<\/a> under new CEO David Ellison<\/a>, Paramount Animation<\/a>\u2018s President Ramsey Naito<\/a> is the latest to step down from the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tPreviously the head of Nickelodeon<\/a> Animation, where she launched its largest animation slate in the network\u2019s 40+ year history with over 70 projects at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio, and deals with top talent and creators, Naito added President of Paramount Animation to her title in September 2021. Naito took over for Mireille Soria, who lead the motion picture studio\u2019s animation arm.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2021 alone, Naito was upped from EVP of Animation Production and Development for the Nickelodeon Group to President of Nickelodeon Animation, overseeing the launches of such global television and film franchises as\u00a0PAW Patrol: The Movie;\u00a0the expansion of the\u00a0SpongeBob SquarePants\u00a0universe with\u00a0The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run\u00a0and two original spinoffs,\u00a0Kamp Koral: SpongeBob\u2019s Under Years\u00a0and\u00a0The Patrick Star Show;\u00a0Baby Shark; Blue\u2019s Clues & You!; Santiago of the Seas; The Loud House Movie;\u00a0and\u00a0Rugrats.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring her run at Paramount Animation, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles received a new life under Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which grossed close to $182M worldwide and $1 billion in retail sales that calendar year for the brand. There was an attempt to take Transformers into the feature cartoon space with Transformers One, however, it played to a much younger demo than the older fanboy fanbase, minting only $129M at the global box office. There was also the release of SpinMaster\u2019s Paw Patrol movies in 2021 and 2023, which minted close to $350M combined. A third movie in that franchise, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, is due out next year on Aug. 14. Also out of Naito\u2019s division is The Last Airbender: Legend of Aang on Oct. 9, 2026, The Angry Birds Movie 3 on Jan. Dec. 23, 2026, and another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated pic slated for Sept. 17, 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tWord was in early August that Naito would stay on post<\/a>\u2013<\/a>merger<\/a> to lead Paramount Animation. Meanwhile, Skydance Animation, under John Lasseter and Holly Edwards, wasn\u2019t merged with Paramount Animation, rather kept separate, as that unit has a Netflix output deal commitment. It\u2019s clear that in the new order of the Ellison-run conglom, he wants a fresh C-suite of executives, read Global Marketing & Distribution Boss Marc Weinstock and Domestic Distribution President\u2014who were behind the success of the studio\u2019s highest grossing movie, Top Gun: Maverick ($1.49 billion)\u2014departed as a new head of worldwide marketing and distribution arrived, that being former Warner Bros and Universal vet, Josh Goldstine.<\/p>\n

\n\tNaito is part of 1,000 cuts that happened today as the new Skydance-owned Paramount looks to achieve $2 billion in savings. Deadline first learned about other motion picture exits today including President of Worldwide Music Randy Spendlove, SVP of Production Bryan Oh, EVP of Production\u00a0Geoff Stier, EVP of Home Entertainment Andres Alvarez, EVP of International Theatrical Marketing Rachel Cadden, SVP of Multicultural Marketing Christine Benitez and SVP of Literary Affairs\u00a0Phil Cohen.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow is Naito\u2019s note to staff this evening:<\/p>\n

\n\tTeam,<\/p>\n

\n\tI want to share with you that I am leaving the company and closing this very special chapter with all of you. Leading this incredible team of talented storytellers, artists and dreamers, and watching the magic that you\u2019ve spun from your imagination and dedication, has been one of the great joys of my career.<\/p>\n

\n\tI am so proud of the work the animation teams and I have done for the last 8+ years. I am honored to have given new life and love to the beloved characters and stories within the vast Paramount and Nickelodeon libraries\u2014from SpongeBob to PAW Patrol to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u2014and the birth of a whole new slate of originals for today\u2019s generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNot only am I endlessly proud of what we\u2019ve built, but even more so the spirit behind it \u2014 the collaboration, creativity, and kindness that define this team. Though I\u2019m moving on, I\u2019ll always be cheering you on (and singing along to the PAW Patrol theme or humming the TMNT riff when I see your work lighting up screens everywhere).<\/p>\n

\n\tThank you to Josh, Dana and the fantastic leadership team who I know will keep propelling our animation business to great heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith love and appreciation,
Ramsey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Paramount begins cleaning house under new CEO David Ellison, Paramount Animation\u2018s President Ramsey Naito is the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,2539,24332,17107,140593],"class_list":{"0":"post-260238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-layoffs","10":"tag-nickelodeon","11":"tag-paramount-animation","12":"tag-ramsey-naito"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}