Meet The Team
Courtney White, President, Butternut
One of television’s most innovative and creative forces in the lifestyle space, Courtney White has been creating content, forging productive collaborations with talent, and driving revenue for top brands for 20+ years.
In 2022, White launched “Butternut,” a joint venture with Wheelhouse, the media, marketing and investment company founded by Brent Montgomery in partnership with Jimmy Kimmel. Serving as Wheelhouse’s lifestyle hub, Butternut creates original content across a variety of genres, including food and home, for all platforms.
Before launching and serving as president of Butternut, White was President of Food Network & Streaming Food Content at Discovery, launching such multi-platform hits as Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions, Amy Schumer Learns to Cook, Buddy V. Duff, Girl Meets Farm, Bobby & Giada in Italy, and Cocktails & Tall Tales with Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy. She was also responsible for the network’s relationships with top brands including Twitter, Caesar’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Hershey’s, Hearst Magazines, NYC and South Beach Wine & Food Festivals, No Kid Hungry, and many more.
Previous to Food Network, White was General Manager/EVP at HGTV and Food Network, leading the team that developed some of the biggest hits in all of cable including A Very Brady Renovation, Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, Home Town with Erin and Ben Napier, Beachfront Bargain Hunt, Flip or Flop, Selling Spelling Manor and Ellen DeGeneres’ Ellen’s Design Challenge.
White joined Scripps, now part of Warner Bros. Discovery, in 2005 and held numerous roles, including SVP, programming, for Travel Channel; VP of development for HGTV, DIY and Great American Country; and director, program development at HGTV. She began her entertainment career at HBO in New York and holds a BFA in Film & Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Whitney White, EVP of Development
Most recently, Whitney was EVP of Woodman Park Productions at All3Media, having taking over running the company in 2021. During her time at Woodman Park, she developed, sold and launched multiple series including Battle of the Brothers for Discovery+ and Food Network, Crack Addicts for TLC, Investigation Discovery’s Man With A Van and Snapchat’s Deep Creek. Prior to joining All3 as previously Head of Development for Ping Pong Productions, where she created, developed and produced series including TLC’s Dr. Pimple Popper, Travel Channel’s Island Hopping and various specials and expansions of the hit series Expedition Unknown. She has previously worked as part of the senior executive team at Asylum Entertainment after launching her unscripted career at various nets under Discovery including Discovery Fit & Health and Planet Green in New York.
KRISTIN BRUTOUT, Director of Development
For well over a decade, Kristin has been developing unscripted programming with a focus on authentic characters and worlds. Before joining Butternut as the Director of Development, she developed content for Spoke Studios, Leftfield Pictures, Good Caper Content and Halfyard Productions. Over the years, Kristin has played a key role in creating hit shows for: History Channel, Bravo, Discovery, Food Network, National Geographic, Science Channel, WEtv, HGTV, diy, among others. Some of her favorite shows to have worked on include: Everything But The House, Cutting It in the ATL, Buddy’s Family Vacation, Bethenny and Fredrik, Counting Cars, Oddities, American Restoration, New York Homicide, among others.
ANNA CIAMPORCERO, Director of Current Programming
Anna began her career in the wild world of New York theatre, where she worked in casting and cultivated her passion for discovering promising new talent. In 2016, she made the jump to unscripted TV and joined the programming and development team at Food Network, where she helped develop new concepts like Kitchen Crash and Serving the Hamptons, and worked on marquee series like Barefoot Contessa, Worst Cooks in America, and The Kitchen. She followed Courtney to Butternut in September 2022, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to develop unique, engaging, talent-driven programming that appeals to eclectic audiences. Anna lives on the Upper West Side of NYC with her husband, and still goes to see as much theatre as she possibly can (old habits die hard).
KRISTIN WIEWEL, CHIEF OF STAFF
Kristin hails from Kennebunkport, Maine, but has made NYC her home for the past two years. She comes to the Butternut and Wheelhouse family with a plethora of experience in the production world as a freelancer, coordinator and PA. Kristin ensures all things Butternut are running seamlessly and brings her unique skill set to team meetings and brainstorms. In her free time, Kristin is an avid yogi, tea drinker and dog lover.