Nickelodeon International, ITV, the CBC and BYUtv are all on board to air Overlord and the Underwoods, a new comedy series coming down the pipeline from marblemedia and Cloudco Entertainment.

The 20 x 30-minute live-actioneris about a family whose lives are disrupted when a villainous alien (who happens to be a distant cousin) takes refuge in their home as part an intergalactic witness protection program.

Co-creator Anthony Farrell (pictured, Secret Life of Boys) will serve as showrunner on the single-camera sitcom. Farrell recently teamed up with Canadian prodcos marblemedia and Beachwood Canyon Productions as the executive producer and showrunner on interconnected live-action series The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker, which will both premiere April 19 on BYUtv in the US and on Super Channel in Canada.

Overlord and the Underwoods is in pre-production now, and Farrell is lining up a writing team that includes Kate Hewlett (Holly Hobbie), Jay Vaidya (Odd Squad) and Sadiya Durrani (Little Mosque on the Prairie). Oscar-winning FX veteran Roger Christian (Star Wars, Alien) will also be part of the project as a character designer.

marblemedia co-CEOs Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg and VP of scripted development Carrie Shaughnessy will executive produce the series, along with head of development and production and series co-creator Ryan Wiesbrock, president Sean Gorman, and EVP Ian Lambur from Cloudco. The CBC’s Sally Catto, Trish Williams, Sandra Picheca and Greig Dymond are producing for the pubcaster. And Michael Dunn and Andra Duke from BYUtv are part of the EP team, with Jim Bell also on board as a supervising producer.

Overlord and the Underwoods received financial support from Canada’s Shaw Rocket Fund, and was developed with funding from the Bell Fund Slate Development Program.

Cloudco and marblemedia-owned Distribution360 will share worldwide distribution rights for the series.