Verena Puhm Launches Matriarch, an LA Studio Developing Its Own Audience-Emotion Tech

Matriarch, the self-funded Los Angeles studio from Verena Puhm, is developing its own audience-response technology alongside its film and series slate rather than adding it to a traditional studio later. Puhm told Deadline the system is meant to inform what the studio actually greenlights.

• Affective Content Intelligence sits at the center. Matriarch describes it as a proprietary approach that combines biometric signals, self-reported emotional intent, and information about content viewed to gauge how a piece of entertainment affects an audience.
• The tech feeds development, not only distribution. The company says audience response can become an input into creative development, content discovery, and greenlighting, rather than relying on clicks and completion rates alone.
• Four projects are in development. The slate spans a hybrid drama series, an adult animated comedy series, a horror feature, and a short-form animated series.
• The studio runs on two lines of work. Matriarch develops its own IP and produces AI-native and hybrid projects for third parties and brands.
• Collaborators come from music, sound, and VFX. Named creative collaborators include TT The Artist, sound designer Joachim M. Weber, and VFX artist David Sulpizio, alongside producer Morenike Dosu.

Building the technology alongside the studio

Matriarch's central technology effort is what the company describes to Deadline as Affective Content Intelligence, a proprietary approach to understanding how audiences respond to media. The systems combine biometric signals, self-reported emotional intent, and information about the content viewed.

Puhm framed the build as deliberate. "We're building the technology alongside that work instead of trying to bolt it onto a traditional studio structure later," she said, adding that the core business remains developing the studio's own IP and producing projects for partners.

She positioned the goal against prediction-based systems. "Most entertainment technology is built to predict what you will watch next," Puhm said. "We want to understand what you are looking to feel, how a piece of entertainment affects you and what we can learn from that response. When that intelligence is connected directly to a studio, it can inform not only discovery, but what gets made."

No formal technical specifications for the system have been shared, and Matriarch has no public product page detailing how it works.

A slate across drama, animation, and horror

Matriarch's development slate covers four projects at different stages:

• Colors in the Dark, a hybrid drama series
• All the Leading Men, an adult animated comedy series
• G-Pigs, a horror feature
• Chomper Romp, an animated short-form series in financing discussions

The mix reflects the studio's stated model of producing AI-native and hybrid work both for itself and for outside partners and brands.

Puhm builds the team from Luma AI, MPC, and Framestore alumni

Before Matriarch, Puhm served as Head of Dream Lab LA at Luma AI, the Los Angeles operation we covered at its launch. Her earlier credits include lead AI artist on the documentary Free Leonard Peltier, writing stints at Leonine Studios' Wiedemann & Berg TV and Red Bull Media's Terra Mater Studios, co-director and co-producer on the documentary Disaster at Devil's Jaw, and work as an early AI filmmaking instructor for Sundance Collab.

The company says its creative collaborators will include director, AI creator, and musician TEDRA aka TT The Artist, whose credits include placements and collaborations with Diplo and Alicia Keys, plus Netflix, HBO's Insecure, P-Valley, and Lena Waithe's Twenties; music producer and sound designer Joachim M. Weber, a former composer and audio designer at ProSiebenSat.1; and creative technologist, director, producer, and VFX artist David Sulpizio.

Puhm is joined by producer Morenike Dosu, who has worked at MPC, Framestore, and DreamWorks Animation. James Stowe and Courtney Feemster are named as consultants.