Luma AI’s former Head of Dream Lab L.A. and filmmaker Verena Puhm has launched a new AI-powered production company, dubbed Matriarch. The studio’s development slate includes an adult animated comedy series titled All the Leading Men, and a short-form toon series called Chomper Romp, currently in financing discussions.
Based in Los Angeles, Matriarch is developing and producing AI-native and hybrid projects, and will also do work for third party and brand clients. The launch slate also includes hybrid drama series Colors in the Dark and horror feature G-Pigs. Puhm told Deadline, “[W]e’re building the technology alongside that work instead of trying to bolt it onto a traditional studio structure later.”
Matriarch’s core is a proprietary approach to audience measurement dubbed ‘Affective Content Intelligence’ — the company is developing tech that can ‘combine biometric signals, self-reported emotional intent and information about the content viewed to better understand the relationship between entertainment and emotional and physiological response… rather than relying only on clicks, completion rates or traditional audience research, Matriarch is exploring how audience response can become an additional input into creative development, content discovery and greenlighting.’
Puhm was the lead AI artist on the 2025 Sundance-selected documentary Free Leonard Peltier, which used generative artificial intelligence to reconstruct moments from the American Indian Movement’s history. She was also co-director and co-producer on the doc Disaster at Devil’s Jaw and was an early AI filmmaking instructor at Sundance Collab.
She is joined at Matriarch by Morenike Dosu, whose CV includes roles at MPC, Framestore and DreamWorks Animation. James Stowe and Courtney Feemster are among the self-funded company’s consultants. Matriarch will be collaborating with AI creator/musician TEDRA (TT The Artist), music producer Joachim M. Weber and creative technologist/director/VFX artist David Sulpizo.
[Source: Deadline]