Scores of Leading Nonprofits Align With Top Management and Production Company The Gotham Group to Bring Content to Quarantined Kids in New YouTube Reading Room Series

 Gotham Assembles Powerhouse Roster of Authors, Content Creators, Filmmakers and Celebrities to Launch GOTHAM READS on Wednesday, April 22nd at 3pm ET/Noon PT; 826LA, Common Sense Media, Girls, Inc., Imagine LA, P.S. Arts, Save the Children, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, SCBWI and Young Storytellers On Board

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#GothamReads—THE GOTHAM GROUP, one of the top management and production companies in the entertainment industry, has partnered with an impressive roster of leading nonprofits in the kids space to create a YouTube reading room series, GOTHAM READS. This new channel, to launch today, Wednesday, April 22nd at 3pm ET/Noon PT, will feature close to 75 top children’s authors, content creators, screenwriters and performers reading their favorite books and giving a peek into their creative process.

1stAveMachine, the Cannes Lion and Clio Award-winning mixed media production company with whom The Gotham Group has a strategic partnership, is providing creative and production support and will be running the channel. 1stAveMachine has produced several award winning YouTube channels including FIELD DAY and GOOGLE ARTS AND CULTURE.

To extend outreach to as many quarantined Pre-School through Middle Grade kids as possible, Gotham Reads content will be shared with a network of affiliated organizations including 826LA, Common Sense Media, Girls, Inc., Imagine LA, P.S. Arts, Save the Children, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and Young Storytellers.

Gotham Reads will launch with five videos on Wednesday, April 22nd at 3pm ET/Noon PT:

Tony DiTerlizzi (The Spiderwick Chronicles) will read his book TED

Gris Grimley (Neil Gaiman’s The Dangerous Alphabet) will read his OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM

Jerry Spinelli will read his book STARGIRL

Butch Hartman (Fairly OddParents): GREEN EGGS AND HAM by Dr. Seuss

Actress AnnaSophia Robb (Little Fires Everywhere): THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by B.J. Novak (The Office)

Gotham Reads content will be refreshed every few days. Additional particpants include: DJ MacHale (Pendragon); Ethan Nicolle (Brave Ollie Possum); Angela DiTerlizzi (Some Bugs); Lin Oliver (Hank Zipzer with Henry Winkler); film director and author Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, new book Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker); Eileen Spinelli (Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch); Dan Yaccarino (Oswald); Scott Sonneborn (Attack of the Invisible Cats); Elanna Allen (Itsy Mitsy Runs Away); Jarrett Krosocska (Lunch Lady series) and Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (1,000 Miles, Washington Black, Prince of Cats).

Public figures including Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and such celebrities as Skylar Astin, Steve Buscemi, Casey Cott, Max Greenfield, Jewel, Sonequa Martin-Green, Natascha McElhone, AnnaSophia Robb, Sara Rue, Lorraine Toussaint and Patrick Warburton are among our readers.

As an example of what Gotham Reads viewers will be offered, HERE is Tony DiTerlizzi, a Caldecott Honor recipient and New York Times bestselling author/illustrator, whose books include The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Search for WondLa, Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, and Jimmy Zangwow’s Out of This World Moonpie Adventure, reading one of his most successful books, Ted.

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Gotham’s Founder & CEO, says “Authors, illustrators, screenwriters and content creators are eager to help bring some solace and normalcy to children around the world during these challenging times. Storytelling is an essential part of our lives. No one knows that better than these artists, whose unique voices have entertained and comforted millions of children for decades.”

About The Gotham Group: The Gotham Group is a multi-faceted management and production company, representing some of the most creative minds in Hollywood and the leading hub for books and IP in the industry. Founded in 1993, The Gotham Group is the only major rep firm in the entertainment industry owned solely by a female. The Gotham Group produced the film Stargirl, based on the best-selling novel by Jerry Spinelli, with America’s Got Talent champ Grace VanderWaal making her debut as the eponymous lead, Stargirl Caraway which has just launched on Disney+. Gotham is currently in production on Wendell & Wild at Netflix in collaboration with Jordan Peele and acclaimed director Henry Selick, starring the voice talent of Key & Peele and Lyric Ross (This Is Us), and just wrapped Sorta Like a Rock Star, based on the novel by Matthew Quick (Silver Linings Playbook), and starring Moana’s Auli’I Cravalho for Netflix. The Gotham Group produced The Maze Runner franchise as well as the Netflix 2018 film Kodachrome with Jason Sudeikis, Elisabeth Olsen and Ed Harris, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. On the television side, Gotham recently signed a distribution deal with Fox 21. It is in post-production on the pilot Masters of Doom, based on award-winning journalist David Kushner’s novel, at USA and is developing Washington Black, based on Esi Edugyan’s acclaimed novel with Selwyn Hinds adapting, Anthony Hemingway directing, and Sterling K. Brown producing, at Hulu, which sold in a bidding war last year. www.gotham-group.com

About 1^st Avenue Machine: 1stAveMachine is a multi-faceted production company and storytelling outfit creating content for film, TV digital, brands, VR and AR. 1stAveMachine recently set up two pilots at TruTV: DON’T BE AN IDIOM, which went to presentation, and MENTAL FLOSS PRESENTS; it produced for Facebook and author James Patterson the first ever interactive series told via Facebook Messenger, and released its first VR narrative short film, BATTLESCAR, which premiered at Sundance in January 2019, and then played at festivals all over the world. It is currently producing the film ATTACK AT COMIC CON which is set up at Universal Studios. Past projects include a partnership with Google and YouTube to produce YouTube’s first ever anthology channel named FIELD DAY featuring the platform’s top creative minds; a sci-fi feature PROSTHESIS; an unscripted show, THINGAMABOB, which aired for one season on the History Channel; and an independently financed feature film, FINDING SOFIA, which was released domestically by Gunpowder & Sky and is currently streaming on Hulu. 1stAveMachine is currently developing projects with Google, Bazelevs, Facebook, RYOT, Boardwalk Pictures, The Fader, Hasbro, FoxNext, Aardman Animation, Vice, Snapchat, TruTV, and The Gotham Group, among others. Since its formation, 1stAve has won numerous commercial awards including Grand Prix, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Cannes Lions, multiple AICP awards, Webby, One Show, ANDY awards, and an MTV Video Music Award for OKGo’s “The Writing on the Wall.” 1stAve’s work has been featured across the globe and most recently during the Super Bowl. http://www.1stavemachine.com/

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