Overview
- Carina Walker was named Head of Young Adult on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, and will report to Global Television Head Peter Friedlander, rounding out his creative leadership team.
- Walker has spent about 9.5 years at Amazon and helped develop series including Off Campus, Every Year After, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, giving her the in-house experience Friedlander cited as a reason for the promotion.
- Friedlander said the appointment is intended to build a YA pipeline anchored in BookTok-sourced intellectual property and voice-driven talent, with BookTok referring to TikTok-driven book fandom that helps surface ready-made audiences.
- The hire follows a recent string of YA successes and multiple summer 2026 renewals at Amazon MGM — including The Summer I Turned Pretty and second-season picks for Off Campus, Elle, Every Year After, and Sterling Point — making YA a commercial priority for the studio.
- The move is likely to drive more adaptations and talent deals that target social-media-born IP and young creators, and it shifts more development power to internal executives who can shepherd projects from discovery to series production.