Wonder Studios, the London-founded, AI-native film and content studio, today announced a significant expansion of its presence in Los Angeles, anchored by a series of senior hires across its film, IP, and commercial teams. The move underscores how central the U.S. market has become to Wonder’s business: the company has generated 90% of its revenue from U.S. clients, including major studios and brands, since launching in early 2025. That growth is now pulling Co-Founder and CEO Xavier Collins to relocate to the U.S., and takes Wonder’s U.S. team past 10 people.
Anchoring the expansion are two senior hires: Inder Gill, who joins as Head of Studio Partnerships and Packaging from Creative Artists Agency, and Ryan Ascencio, who joins as Head of Growth from Fanfix and Actor Will Smith’s production Company, Westbrook.
Gill spent nine years at CAA, most recently as a Media Finance agent specializing in the packaging, financing and sales of independently financed films, including Monkey Man, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Anniversary. At Wonder he will lead studio and producer partnerships, film financing and packaging, and will help shape the company’s growing slate of original content and owned IP. The role is based in Los Angeles and reports directly to Collins.
Ascencio was most recently Co-CEO of Fanfix, and before that spent five years at Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook, most recently as EVP of Corporate Development, where he helped raise more than $80 million in institutional financing and led strategic partnerships and M&A with studios and brands. At Wonder he will spearhead new business, strategic partnerships and commercialization across its agency and IP businesses, with a focus on building new models for how brands, studios and IP owners use technology to create, own and monetize stories.
Gill and Ascencio join a team assembled from across the traditional entertainment industry. Kieran Hoyle leads Wonder’s IP across co-productions, original content and catalog, with a focus on hybrid live-action production. A former lawyer and production executive, Hoyle spent seven years at Fremantle across business affairs, scripted production and its Global Drama unit, producing more than 20 hours of AACTA-nominated television. Hoyle is joined by Carter Beardmore, Creative Development Executive, who spent four years at A24, most recently at A24 Labs, partnering filmmakers with emerging technologies.
The hires reflect Wonder’s view that lowering the cost of production should not mean lowering the standard, or the ownership.
Since its founding in early 2025, Wonder has set out to break from the industry norm in which filmmakers trade away their IP rights in exchange for production funding. Its anthology series Beyond the Loop is the proof of concept: Wonder invests in filmmakers and their IP, and they keep ownership of what they create. The series has grown from 1 million views in Season 1 to more than 10 million halfway through Season 2.
Wonder’s Los Angeles studio will be based at The Lighthouse Campus in Venice Beach, alongside existing teams in London and New York. The announcement follows the September 10 Los Angeles premiere of KITA, from Grammy-nominated artist and filmmaker Jidenna, and Goldfish Mayhem, from filmmaker Junie Lau, both of which will be released as part of Wonder’s second season of its flagship anthology, Beyond the Loop.
Xavier Collins, Co-Founder and CEO of Wonder Studios, said: “Wonder has been a global business from day one. While we are proud of our European roots, the U.S. is where the overwhelming majority of our work has come from – winning work with some of the world’s biggest brands and streamers. LA is still the epicenter of the entertainment industry and that’s why we’ve gone all in on launching the U.S. business, hiring top talent locally and why I made the decision to move to the U.S.
“Wonder is building the bridge between the traditional industry and the creative possibility of this technology,” Collins concluded.
Inder Gill said: “Wonder is redefining what a project costs and how quickly it can come to life, all while empowering filmmakers. I am excited to build on the company’s mission and my experience in film financing and artist representation to create more opportunities for storytellers.”
Jidenna’s film KITA will be released on September 17 and Lau’s film Goldfish Mayhem will be released on October 1. Both will be available to watch on YouTube and Wonder TV. Watch the trailer for KITA here.
About Wonder Studios
Wonder Studios is an AI-native film and content studio building an entertainment business for the AI era. Founded by filmmaker and creative technologist Justin Hackney and marketplace entrepreneur Xavier Collins, Wonder works across original IP, commercial productions and filmmaker development.
Wonder brings together a studio, talent marketplace and global community of creative and AI-native filmmakers, pairing creatives and engineers from the start of each project to support ambitious storytelling and new production models. Its ownership framework is designed to give filmmakers a clearer pathway from short film to feature or series, with shared ownership in the stories they create.
The company has raised more than $15 million from investors including Atomico, LocalGlobe, Blackbird and Adobe Ventures.
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