An Interview with Jef Kaminsky, an Executive Producer of ‘Eva the Owlet’

Eva (voiced by Vivienne Rutherford) in "Eva the Owlet," now streaming on Apple TV+.

Jef Kaminsky is an accomplished Executive Producer that has brought countless family themed programs to the small screen over the years. His most recent project, Eva the Owlet, is currently streaming on Apple TV+, and we here at NTG were lucky to sit down with Jef to discuss this wonderful new series and his career.
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John Betancourt: What is it about animated family shows that ignites your imagination as a producer?

Jef Kaminsky: That's pretty easy. For me, I would love it… if everything we make inspires kids to have a better life, be happy in the world and be excited to be out there and make friends and do the right things and learn from our shows.

John Betancourt: What was it that attracted you to this particular project?

Jef Kaminsky: Oh, my gosh, this is a book series that Scholastic Incorporated, our parent company publishes. And it's a book series that's really flown off the shelves… for years. I think there's almost 11 million copies in print in eight different countries. Kids love it. And it seems to be gender neutral. Boys and girls alike, seem to like it, even though Eva is a girl owl. So, it's something that we saw, and we fell in love with just as much as kids do. And just thought this would be a great show, and the Apple TV Plus kids and family team agreed.

John Betancourt: Walk us through how this show was assembled from a producer’s standpoint.

Jef Kaminsky: Sure, I think it's a little, probably just a tiny bit different that it comes from a book, which is what we focus on, its fast entertainment, our primary function is to pick great books out of the catalogue from the company and figure out which ones might work well for film and television. Basically, the process is really; identify the book, and or the series, and then find great people to work on it that are creative. So, you know, let's start with, with a writer that we think has a great vision for the show and work with them for months and months and months and months together. And then once we have that, we zoom to the pitch process and in the end, Apple TV+ loved it as much as we did.

John Betancourt: The show features a bevy of beautiful lessons, what is the top one you hope audiences take away?

Jef Kaminsky: I will give you, two. The first one is, you know, we want kids to be to be delighted and entertained while they watch it, we want them to just be happy and feel good. But the second thing is, really, the curriculum behind this series is about journaling, and using a diary, and it's about processing your feelings, understand the emotions you're having, and being able to come up with strategies and mechanisms to cope with all the feelings you're having. And that's what Eva does. That's what she models. And that's what we’re hoping to get take away from it. Be really amazing if kids could see her doing this. And either they do it literally in their own journal, or they do it imaginatively and say, like, what Eva do?

John Betancourt: What are you most excited for families to experience when it comes to this series?

Jef Kaminsky: I think you hit it when you said families. We want kids to watch it. But we want to we want families to co-view it and we want them to all sit down together. And we think we've made a show that will do that. That's not you know, that's something that everybody can enjoy moms, dads, caregivers, and kids, most importantly. And hopefully that happens all over the world, because Apple TV Plus is everywhere.

John Betancourt: What does it mean to you, to have this series on the air?

Jef Kaminsky: It is amazing. It's just been a few minutes that we've been working on this but in reality, myself and the other executive producers at Scholastic… we've probably been doing this for maybe six years. We've probably been in direct production of it for like three. So, to be able to work on something like this and have it sustain across that amount of time is an incredible testament to all the people that we've worked with across Apple TV Plus, at our studio, Brown Bag Films in Dublin, all the freelancers we've hired, it's basically all the people that we've worked with on the show. We love them. They're amazing. It's an incredible team.

John Betancourt: What does it mean to you to have so many wonderful family shows on the air that impacts families in a positive manner?

Jef Kaminsky: It feels good. It's… it's nice to know that that I've been able to work at Scholastic and make content for kids and families that… that does try to do better, does try to make the world a little bit of a better place. And to inspire kids across different generations. I've been doing this a long time, but to be able to inspire different generations of kids with content that… that is pretty good for them is a lovely thing.

John Betancourt: What are you most proud of when it comes to this show?

Jef Kaminsky: I love the look of it. I love the sound of it. I love the stories. And I love the way that we've created this world that models these different characters, all come together and to have them feel pretty real. I think for a kid viewer. Very proud of the whole thing. And, and it was a joy to work on it with all the people that we worked with. So proud of… proud of the relationships we've created, but also the end product.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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