WhitebaitMedia is a local independent New Zealand production company producing children's programmes. It was founded by

Janine Morrell-Gunn Janine Rania Morrell-Gunn (née Morrell) is a children's television producer from New Zealand. She is a Māori of the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi. Biography Morrell-Gunn grew up in Christchurch and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Univer ...

in 1998.

History

Morrell-Gunn worked as an executive producer for

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

's Children's Unit while it was based in Christchurch, New Zealand. When the Unit moved to Wellington's

Avalon studios Avalon is a suburb of Lower Hutt in New Zealand, formed as a private residential development in the 1970s on land formerly occupied by market-gardens on the left (eastern) bank of the Hutt River. It features mostly California-inspired designed ...

, in 1998, Morrell-Gunn remained in Christchurch to start her own company, Whitebait Productions. Whitebait's first commission was '' Bumble'', a preschool series about a bee and his friends. The first actor to wear the Bumble suit was her husband,

Jason Gunn Jason Gunn (born 26 December 1968) is a New Zealand television and radio personality. He is known for '' The Son of a Gunn Show, What Now, Dancing with the Stars, Wheel of Fortune'', and ''The Rich List'', and also afternoon shows on radio sta ...

. Whitebait Productions has also produced the ''Jessie.com'' series for What Now TV (which sold to Disney Australia, and English programmes for Japan), the interactive pop talent quest ''Wannabes'' for Three, and the series ''Tuhono'', a youth hip-hop show, for Māori Television. The show Animal Academy was produced by Whitebait also for

and is screened regularly on TVNZ 2. Whitebait Productions has produced ''

What Now? ''What Now'' is a New Zealand children's television programme that premiered on Saturday 9 May 1981. It is currently filmed before a live audience at a different school in New Zealand, which is selected every week. The show airs every Sunday at ...

'' since the shows relaunch.TVNZ Announces New Look What Now
Press Release: Television New Zealand In April 2009, Whitebait's newest show ''The Erin Simpson Show'' came on air. The show was originally planned as a three-year series, the show went from strength to strength securing an additional two years of New Zealand on Air funding. On 6 December 2013, ''The Erin Simpson Show'' aired its last, 770th, episode. WhitebaitMedia was formerly ''Whitebait-TV'', before a rebrand in 2015. The name was changed to reflect the growing need for content outside of the TV screen, including mobile and web content to complement the broadcast programming.

Shows

The list below is all of the productions and shows created by WhitebaitMedia: *''Jessie.com'' (2001-2002) *''Wannabes'' (2002-2005) *'' Bumble'' (1999-2002), *''

'' (2009–present) *''Tuhono'' (2004) *''The Erin Simpson Show'' (2009-2013) *''Animal Academy'' *''The 4:30 Show'' (2014-2015) *''The Adam and Eve Show'' (2016-2017) *''2Kaha'' *''Fanimals'' (2018-2019) *''Darwin and Newts'' (2018–present) *''Brain Busters'' (2020–present) *The Feed (2022 -present)

References

External links

*{{official, http://www.whitebaitmedia.com/ Television production companies of New Zealand Mass media in Christchurch 1998 establishments in New Zealand Children's television