Speaker Chris Nee
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Peabody, Humanitas and Emmy Award-winner Chris Nee is the creator and executive producer of Disney Junior's "Doc McStuffins," an imaginative animated series about a six-year-old girl who runs a clinic for stuffed animals and broken toys. She is also executive producer of Disney Junior's upcoming animated series "Vampirina," about a young vampire girl who faces the joys and trials of being the new kid in town when her family moves from Transylvania to Pennsylvania.
Nee's inspiration for "Doc McStuffins" is two-fold based on her childhood which was spent helping out in her mother's popular independent toy stores, and her more recent experience as a mother to her young son who developed severe asthma when he was two years old. After seeing her own child's anxiety about going to the doctor, she decided to come up with an idea for a show that could help make the process of going to the doctor less scary for kids.
An accomplished children's television writer, Nee has also managed to juggle a successful career as a documentary and reality TV producer. While on location in Alaska for Discovery Channel's cult hit documentary reality series "Deadliest Catch," Nee was simultaneously writing the first "Wonder Pets" Christmas Special for Nickelodeon, which she completed while living in a converted World War II barracks-turned-hotel on an island in the middle of the Bering Sea. She is responsible for helping to discover fan favorite Captain Phil Harris and his sons, Josh and Jake, while doing interviews on the fishing boats. Nee received an Emmy Award nomination for her work on season one of the series. Her other producing credits include R.J. Cutler's "The Residents" for Discovery Channel and ABC's "The Real Roseanne Show," based on actress and comedian Roseanne Barr's life.
Nee has received multiple Emmy Award nominations for writing and won an Emmy in 2002 for her work on "Little Bill," the Peabody Award-winning series based on the children's books by Bill Cosby. Her additional writing credits include the Disney Channel series "American Dragon: Jake Long," Playhouse Disney series "Johnny and the Sprites" and "Higglytown Heroes," and Nickelodeon series "The Backyardigans" and "Olivia."
Nee began her career as an associate producer at Sesame Street International and spent time in Mexico, Finland, Israel and Jordan working on the local productions of the award winning show, before transitioning over to writing for the Sesame Workshop.
A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, Nee is a graduate of New York University and currently sits on the board of the Hollywood Health & Society at USC's Annenberg School for Communication. She resides in Venice, California with her wife Lisa and their young son Theo.
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