• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 10, 2011

Branching further into original content creation, Break Media just signed a development deal with actor-cum-new media maven Zachary Levi.

Best known as the star of NBC's "Chuck," Levi also runs an amorphous production shop named The Nerd Machine. Together, Levi and Break's team of content creators plan to develop three "parody, nerd-themed public-service videos" leading up to a branded event at Comic-Con International in late July.

"Zac's connection with and affinity for all things nerd, coupled with our production capabilities ... will make Nerd HQ the ultimate destination for [Comic-Con] attendees and fans," said Jonathan Small, senior vice president of editorial and programming at Break Media.

Break has agreed to produce the three videos, which will be directed by and starring Levi, along with some yet-to-be-named celebrity friends. Expected to debut by July, the videos will be featured on a dedicated "Nerd HQ" channel on Break.com.

Without naming names, Break said several brand sponsors have already signed on to support the content, as well as the live Comic-Con event.

In addition, live updates from the Nerd HQ event at Comic-Con -- including photo galleries and celebrity panel shout-outs -- will be featured on the online channel and through editorial coverage across various Break properties, including Game Front and Screen Junkies.

The partnership comes amid broader efforts to ramp up original video production at Break. Most notably, it recently hired Endeavor talent agent Greg Siegel as senior vice president of entertainment development.

Also, in partnership with screenwriter community Scripped.com, Break recently debuted its "Break's Big Break" initiative to unearth new talent. For six weeks beginning in April, aspiring writers were encouraged to submit scripts via a contest page at Scripped.com for the "next great digital short."

Break says it now reaches more than 140 million unique visitors online and streams over 2 billion videos per month.

According to Nielsen, Americans streamed 14.7 billion videos in April -- the most streams ever in a single month. While the number of videos streamed increased, however, total viewing time actually decreased during the period.

There were 141.4 million unique U.S. video viewers who spent an average of 4 hours, 31 minutes viewing video over the course of the month, per Nielsen.