Karey Burke

Karey Burke is the President of 20th Television, a production company owned by The Walt Disney Company, formerly known as 20th Century Fox Television.

Burke served as president of ABC Entertainment from November 2018 to December 2020 and was responsible for all development, programming, casting, marketing, business affairs and scheduling operations for ABC prime time and late-night.

Burke was named executive vice president, Programming and Development at Freeform in October 2014, where she was charged with overseeing all scripted and unscripted development and current original programming, in addition to casting and talent development. Burke was also responsible for creating and executing a cohesive programming strategy for multiplatform distribution, and accelerating and amplifying the high-quality, brand-defining content for which Freeform is known. During her tenure, she had great success building on Freeform’s strong foundation, delivering the No. 1 new cable comedy and No. 1 new cable drama of 2018 for the network’s target audience of W18-34 with “grown-ish” and “Siren.” She also continued Freeform’s dominance as the No. 1 most social cable channel with buzz-worthy shows like “The Bold Type” and “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger.”

Prior to joining the network, Burke partnered with director Todd Holland (“Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Larry Sanders Show”) in Dark Toy Entertainment, which they created in 2010, producing “Free Agents” for NBC, as well as Matthew Perry’s comedy “Go On.” Previously, she joined forces with Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg as the third partner in their company, Katalyst Films. Burke oversaw the television division and a busy slate of scripted and reality programming, including “Miss Guided” and “The Beautiful Life,” in addition to the groundbreaking digital series “Blah Girls” and “Katalyst HQ.”

Before joining Katalyst, she partnered with Jamie Tarses in an overall production deal with NBC Universal Television. From 1999 until 2003, she served as executive vice president of Primetime Series at NBC, overseeing production of all prime-time comedy and drama programming, including such Emmy® Award-winning shows as “West Wing,” ”Will & Grace” and “ER.” During this time, she supervised the development of such acclaimed series as “Freaks and Geeks,” “Scrubs,” ”American Dreams,” “Boomtown,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Ed.” As senior vice president of Primetime Series from 1996-1999, Burke was involved in the development and production of such series as “Friends,” “Mad About You,” “Providence” and “Just Shoot Me,” among others.

Burke began her career as a comedy development assistant at NBC after graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a degree in communication studies.