Reginald Hudlin is leaving his position as President of Entertainment at the BET network after three years during which he oversaw the development of 17 of the top 20 shows in the network’s history.  Hudlin is ankling the network on the eve of the debut of BET’s first scripted show, the comedy series Somebodies. 

Hudlin is an entertainment polymath who wrote and directed the first House Party movie, scripted the Black Panther comic book series for Marvel, and has served as a producer on Aaron McGruder’s groundbreaking animated series, The Boondocks.

Earlier this year the BET network announced plans for a Black Panther animated series, which will be based on the Marvel Comics character (see “BET Plans Black Panther”).  Even after taking over as President of Entertainment for BET Hudlin kept on writing the Black Panther for Marvel (see “Hudlin to Continue to Write Black Panther”), and his interest in the character obviously played a major role in getting the Black Panther animated series on the network.

Hudlin, who largely succeeded in his mission to put more original programming on the BET, will return “to his entrepreneurial roots as an independent producer.”