Disney orders 20-episode series from creator-led Dhar Mann Studios

CALIFORNIA: Bedroom content creators do not usually end up on Disney’s commissioning slate, and that is precisely what makes this deal worth a second look. Disney has ordered 20 episodes from Dhar Mann Studios for kids, tweens, teens and families, a commission that turns a creator who built his following on short, moralistic social videos into an actual Disney programme maker. Founder Dhar Mann called it “so much bigger than a content deal,” and for once that is not just press-release inflation.

The scale behind the deal explains why Disney came calling in the first place. Dhar Mann Studios says it reaches more than 170 million followers globally and pulls in close to 300 million views a week across platforms, built on what the company describes as uplifting, relatable stories rooted in universal experiences, essentially short morality tales designed to be shared, discussed and rewatched. That is an audience most legacy broadcasters would kill for, built entirely outside the traditional studio system and without a single greenlight from a network executive.

What makes the operation credible rather than merely viral is the infrastructure behind it. Dhar Mann Studios runs out of a three-stage, 125,000 square-foot production facility in Burbank, practically in Disney’s backyard, and has already built a track record of brand partnerships with Adobe, the NFL and Gap. It also produces original programming for Samsung TV Plus, where Mann runs a free ad-supported streaming channel that was the platform’s first creator-led original content deal, alongside a global vertical video slate made with Fox Entertainment. In other words, this was not a bedroom operation Disney discovered by accident, it was a fully professionalised content studio that happened to start in a bedroom, and the distinction matters enormously to how seriously the industry should take the deal.

Mann’s own framing of the moment leans hard into that origin story, and deliberately so: “I grew up with Disney stories. Now I get to experience that same magic through the eyes of my own family, and the idea that we now have the opportunity to create stories for Disney for the next generation is incredibly meaningful to me.” He credited Disney executives Asad Ayaz, Debra O’Connell and Ayo Davis for taking the time to understand what his studio had built, a detail worth noting because it suggests Disney approached this as a genuine creative partnership rather than simply acquiring reach and slapping its logo on it.

The bigger significance sits with what the deal says about where Disney thinks its next generation of viewers actually lives. Legacy studios have spent years watching creator-led content pull attention away from traditional programming, and mostly responding by building their own creator strategies from the top down. This deal runs the other way: Disney is bringing an audience-first, platform-native creator directly into its commissioning pipeline, betting that Mann’s proven ability to make people “laugh, cry, share and feel seen,” as he put it, translates cleanly into scripted family programming. Details of the 20-episode order, including release timing and platform, are yet to be announced, but the signal has already landed. Disney is not just tolerating the creator economy anymore, it is actively recruiting from it.