Ed Simpson Launching Creator Venture After Exiting Wheelhouse

EXCLUSIVE: Ed Simpson, chief strategy officer of Calabasas Confidential producer Wheelhouse, is launching his own investment venture in the creator economy world.

Simpson, a longtime consigliere to Wheelhouse founder Brent Montgomery, left the company after working with the Pawn Stars producer for 15 years.

Deadline understands Simpson is in talks to invest in a number of YouTube channels, eyeing the rapidly growing creator space for his own company. It comes as YouTube continues to grow as the world’s largest streaming service and has started bringing together some of its top creators with advertisers directly, as highlighted at its recent Upfront event in New York last month.

Simpson is expected to close his first deals over the coming weeks. His departure has been in the works for some time.

After moving to the U.S., he was the showrunner of ABC’s Wife Swap before he joined Leftfield Pictures in 2012 as head of business development, where he focused on M&A and was heavily involved in the company’s acquisition by ITV in 2014. After Montgomery was named CEO of ITV America in 2015, Simpson became EVP, Business Development and International for the U.S. arm of the British broadcaster and producer.

When Montgomery launched Wheelhouse in 2018, Simpson was part of the founding team as Chief Strategy Officer.

His interest in the creator economy is not new, he launched Wheelhouse DNA, an influencer-focused content division that created original content for digital native talent across platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram in 2021 with stars such as Nikita Dragun.

Wheelhouse recently acquired Anomaly Entertainment, which was founded by former Discovery execs Matthew Kelly and Michael Sorensen and is behind a raft of Shark Week specials, and did an overall deal with Kismet Media. The company is also behind Netflix’s Million Dollar Secret, America’s Sweethearts and King of Collectibles, A&E’s Duck Dynasty: The Revival and upcoming series including Bravo’s Secrets, Lives, Texas, Wives and Discovery’s Roast My Rental.

Simpson said, “What an incredible ride the last 15 years have been building numerous successful businesses with Brent and together with the Wheelhouse team, and I am thankful for every experience and opportunity. We’ve navigated so much together, including the seismic changes in our industry – but those have also opened doors to new models for growth and so I’m eager and excited to expand my work across a broader portfolio of ventures.”

Wheelhouse CEO Brent Montgomery added, “It’s always difficult when a longtime partner and friend moves on to start a new chapter; this one feels especially bittersweet. That said, I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished during that time. Now is the moment to support Ed as he steps out on his own.”