The Leopard USA team is made up of passionate, creative people from all over the world. Our people are brilliant, imaginative, and fun! We love creating shows, and using our experience to make the best, most entertaining programs possible. Meet the Leopard USA team:
James Burstall
CEO
James is a forward-thinking leader. He is passionate about ideas and talent. He trained as a journalist, then showrunner. As Executive Producer, his scripted and non-scripted credits include Mormon Love for Facebook, award-winning movie An Englishman in New York starring John Hurt and Cynthia Nixon and the daily hit House Hunters International on HGTV. He studied at the universities of Bristol and Oxford in the UK and Stanford in California. He speaks five languages and is learning Mandarin.
Lindsay Schwartz
Chief Creative Officer
Lindsay is a dynamic executive who combines a strong creative acumen with steady business insight. Since she began her career in unscripted television in 2010, she has created, developed and produced several successful projects across a broad spectrum of networks and genres including reality, competition, documentary and recreation.
Prior to joining Leopard, Lindsay was SVP of Development at Collins Avenue, best known for the juggernaut series Dance Moms on Lifetime, where she was the lead creative voice behind their portfolio of original concepts, unique formats and fresh talent.
Matt Widmayer
SVP Finance
Matthew joined the Leopard team in early 2016 assuming the role of Corporate Controller. Matthew brings over eleven years of experience in accounting & management from multiple industries. Matthew’s analytic skills and high attention to detail has helped him manage his career through multiple complex accounting fields within the corporate world including Sarbanes Oxley compliance and acquisitions. Prior to joining Leopard, Matthew had managed a full accounting team overseeing monthly and annual reporting as well as quarterly and annual audits.
John Bertholon
Executive VP of Programming
John is an award-winning producer with a consistent record of success in production and content development, encompassing a diverse career. With over 20 years in the business and direct oversight of nearly 1500 hours of programming, he is a team-builder with applied development, creative, technical, and leadership skills across a broad range of TV genres. Prior to joining Leopard in 2008, a showrunning stint at UK-based Lion Television netted successful runs of Discovery’s It Takes A Thief and adaptation of the UK hit Cash Cab which earned him an Emmy in 2009. He has also served as showrunner and supervising producer on multiple projects for Oxygen and FOX Syndication where he cut his teeth in high-volume content generation and delivery. John is currently overseeing House Hunters International for Leopard, and has served as EVP Programming, VP Programming and Executive Producer for the company on multiple series for A&E, HGTV and Travel Channel.
Wendy Hall
Line Producer
Wendy is Leopard USA’s longest serving employee. She has worked on all of the company projects since she moved to the US in late 2007 and after almost 15 years on the East Coast, recently relocated from New York to California to continue as Line Producer at Leopard's Los Angeles offices. She has managed shows for various networks including HGTV, A&E, TLC and Food Network and oversees production for all of Leopard’s development projects. Before joining the US team, Wendy was based in Leopard’s London office, managing episodes of Car Booty for BBC1 and numerous factual and scripted development projects, as well as coordinating the observational documentary series' Crash Scene Investigators for ITV and BBC’s Missing, and ITV documentaries Body Building Pensioners and Me and My Face. Wendy also worked as Post Production Coordinator on Leopardrama's Mysterious Creatures for ITV starring Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall, and Production Coordinator on The Grey Man for BBC1 with Olivia Colman.
Ina Wahl Hamilton
Human Resources/Payroll Manager
Ina joined Leopard in mid-2018 building the Human Resources Department and taking over Payroll.
With her passion for customer service and a diverse industry background (hospitality, real estate investment, consumer packaged goods and television news production), Ina supports both the Company and her colleagues with care. Working at Leopard has given Ina an appreciation for, and filled her DVR with, Reality Television programs.
Stephanie Eno
SVP Current
Stephanie is a passionate and collaborative executive with experience in unscripted programming, including docu, makeover, talk, game, specials, and live. Prior to joining LeopardUSA, she was SVP of Development for MAK Pictures working on project for networks such as Netflix, Discovery, ID and Travel. Stephanie spent part of her career on the network side for TLC, Style Network and Fine Living. Starting out in NY before moving to LA, she’s held various production roles at Nickelodeon, The Daily Show, and Dick Clark Productions.
Mitchell Parness
VP of Development
Mitchell has a passion for finding unique stories and discovering authentic characters. Throughout his career, he’s specialized in unscripted television development, talent management and client representation. His past experience includes working at Creative Artists Agency in the Motion Picture Literary Department and time at Generate as a Literary Manager representing Actors, Directors, Writers, Athletes and Culinary Personalities. Mitchell has created and developed scripted and non-scripted programming for HGTV, Discovery, Food Network, TLC, OWN and many more. He’s a dog lover, foodie, thrill seeker and self-proclaimed sneakerhead.
Kiana Wilson
Development Producer
Texas native and proud HBCU grad, Kiana Wilson began her career creating lifestyle shorts and promotional content for luxury brands, before turning her skills toward television development. As a development editor, Kiana has worked on numerous projects for networks such as HGTV, A&E, USA, Discovery and more. Throughout her professional career, Kiana has been driven to provide accurate representations of people of color and women in media. Her professional experience ranges from scripted series, commercial/branding, music video, web series, and more recently, documentary.
Reagan Janey
Executive Assistant to the COO and CCO
Reagan is the newest addition to the LeopardUSA team. She is a Baltimore, Maryland native who moved to Los Angeles in 2020 to begin her career in entertainment. Reagan started off as an Executive Assistant and day-to-day manager with a record label, then later discovered a passion for television and film. She has been featured on the game show, Pictionary, which aided to her love for television and film. She has over 3 years of Executive Assistant experience ranging from the music to retail industries. Throughout her career, she has discovered her calling is to provide excellent service and reliability to her executives. Her main goal is to make everyone’s lives easier by planning and executing daily tasks effectively. She is excited for her rewarding career to continue at Leopard USA.
Sobrina Neil
Production Intern - NYC
Sobrina Neil is a passionately focused individual born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In 2020, she began her freelance journey as a Personal Assistant for local artists in New York, where her passion for Production broadened. Assisting on various projects, music videos, and live shows, Sobrina realized that she had found what she wanted to do in life, work in a creative environment. In hopes of being a part of production, she took the leap of faith at the beginning of 2023 and enrolled in the Production training course called “Made in New York”, certified under the Mayor of Media and Entertainment to grow her knowledge in the production industry. On graduation she became a certified Production Assistant and hopes to become a Production Manager one day. Sobrina is thrilled to be the latest intern working at Leopard USA.
Cindy (Brucie) Burciaga
Development Intern - Los Angeles
Cindy also known as Brucie is one of the newest team members at Leopard USA. Brucie is an LA native and is trilingual in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. She has been pursuing her career in the film entertainment industry for the past six months. Brucie has work with multiple production companies assisting on set, such as Barnstormer Production Corp, Warner Bros Discovery, Amazon Prime, MJZ Productions, Paramount Pictures, RadicalMedia just to name a few.
Brucie has found her passion to share her ideas and creativity, her main goal is to create compelling and thought-provoking content that resonates with audiences from all walks of life. With her diverse language skills and experience working with top production companies, Brucie brings a unique perspective and skill set to the team at Leopard USA. She is excited to collaborate with fellow creatives and help bring innovative projects to life.