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Exclusive: Management firm and production company The Cartel has signed a trio of new clients: Into the Badlands and Defiance executive producers Michael Taylor, Why Women Kill consulting producer and Grand Hotel co-ep Curtis Kheel, and Famous In Love actor Niki Koss.

Koss starred in Freeform’s Famous In Love as Alexis Glenn, where she was a series regular opposite Bella Thorne, Charlie DePew, Carter Jenkins and Georgie Flores. She also appeared in Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, Red Wing, The Appearing, Girl On The Edge, Trafficked, and Warning Shot. She acted and produced Dreamcatcher and Burying Yasmeen. Koss also won of the Female Filmmaker of the Year at the 2019 Burbank International Film Festival and is a Sundance Institute Directing Fellowship alumni.

The Cartel is representing Koss for Literary. She remains represented by McKeon/Myones Entertainment for talent.

Taylor is best known for writing and exec producing Syfy’s Defiance,...

Producers Lily Blavin and Niki Koss have launched a new production company, Lightning Strikes Productions, and are developing Dave Pelzer’s best-selling memoir “A Child Called ‘It’: One Child’s Courage to Survive.”

“A Child Called ‘It'” was published in 1995 and detailed the abuse Pelzer suffered as a child from his alcoholic mother. The book was on The New York Times’ bestseller list for several years. The project will focus on a child’s unyielding courage for survival enabling him to overcome extreme life-threatening odds.

Blavin is producing along with Paul Blavin, David Goldblum and Karen Kehela Sherwood. Goldblum and Tamlin Hall are writing the script.

Blavin and Koss have set up Lightning Strikes with a focus on telling stories that contribute to changing the world in a positive way, while serving as a cathartic escape. As part of the launch, they are currently in pre-production on an untitled documentary directed by Ross Kauffman,...

Two episodes were provided prior to broadcast.

Bella Thorne finds herself in an interesting position. The former Shake It Up 19-year-old starlet is ready to abandon her Disney Channel roots to move into more mature, less kid-friendly entertainment, yet she’s not willing to pull a Miley Cyrus and jump completely into the deep end. Rather, she’s progressing gradually onto the other side, working her way into everything from the newest Madea movie to the long-delayed Amityville: The Awakening to even the latest Xavier Dolan joint. Her career options are varied and versatile, one must admit, but she’s also keeping herself close to home. Thorne reconnects with both the Mouse House and the small screen at the center of the newest Freeform original series, an adaptation of Rebecca Serle’s Ya novel Famous in Love.

Developed by Serle and I. Marlene King (Pretty Little Liars), Famous in Love...