Karen Toliver has joined Netflix as vice president of animated film, Variety has learned exclusively.
The former Sony Pictures Animation executive vice president will join the streamer in March reporting to Melissa Cobb, VP of the kids and family division. She’ll be responsible for two to three animated features annually and will work alongside fellow animation VP Gregg Taylor.
Toliver is credited with the development of the Oscar-nominated “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” as well as a producer on the Oscar-winning short “Hair Love.” Prior to SPA, she had a long run at the now-shuttered Blue Sky Studios working on titles like “Ferdinand” and the “Ice Age” and “Rio” franchises.
She is an American film producer. Toliver has worked as an executive at Walt Disney Animation Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation, and Sony Pictures Animation, and has supervised the production of films such as Ferdinand, Curious George and Meet the Robinsons. She is the executive vice president of creative development at Sony Pictures Animation. Toliver is best known for co-producing the short film Hair Love, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2020.
Toliver received a 2020 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for Hair Love, shared with Matthew A. Cherry, becoming the first African-American woman to win in that category.
