Hulu has acquired the animated TV comedy pitch Detective Agent Derek, according to an exclusive report from Deadline published 28 July 2026.

The pitch comes from Nick Kreiss and the trio Julian Bonosconi, Griffin Poole, and Spencer Rich — three longtime friends from Orem, Utah, who work together under the name Big Grey Mass. None of them attended film school. Kreiss, Bonosconi, and Poole are credited as the show's creators and will executive produce alongside Douglas Banker and Conor Welch. Deadline

So what is it? Detective Agent Derek is described as a prestige cop show filtered through the internet's weirdest subcultures. Each episode is structured like a serious crime drama — murders, conspiracies, criminal organisations — but the protagonist is a nunchuck-wielding, anime-obsessed character nobody takes seriously. The world of the show, though, treats him as an alpha saviour.

Kreiss brings a deep bench of comedy credits. His feature work includes Jackass Forever and Little Bitches, and his television credits span Punk'd, The Eric Andre Show, The Prank Panel, and Bad Friends, the last of which also streams on Hulu. Big Grey Mass describe their creative philosophy as making "animation soup for the soul," and their route into the industry as "years of working soul-sucking jobs, figuring it out, and making art anyway." Deadline

On the representation side, Big Grey Mass is repped by Mosaic, while Kreiss is represented by Underground and Morris Yorn.

Representatives for Hulu declined to comment on the acquisition. No episode count, release window, or premiere date has been disclosed.

For Hulu, the pickup adds to the platform's growing animation slate — though how Detective Agent Derek takes shape from pitch to screen, and when audiences will actually see it, remains undisclosed. An acquired pitch is a starting point: the show now moves into development, where scripts, designs, and production schedules are built. Some pitches reach screens within a couple of years; others never make it past this stage. For now, the project has a home, a creative team, and a premise that sounds unlike anything else in the pipeline.