Academy Talks – Producing Comedy for Television

Andrew Barnsley is the president of Project 10, an international, award-winning production company, and a principal of Not A Real Production Company Inc., along with Eugene Levy, Daniel Levy, and Fred Levy. He is an executive producer on Schitt’s Creek, Sports On Fire, and Spun Out, among others. Barnsley is currently developing multiple comedy projects including: CBC’s My Scottish Family created by Gerry Dee; Beyond Repair (co-created by Cobie Smulders and Paul Campbell for Bell Media); and Darcy (co-created by Darcy Michael and Carl Johann for Bell Media).

Named The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation Under 35 (’14) and Playback’s Top Ten to Watch (’12), Mark Montefiore recently executive produced the CraveTV/Comedy Network comedy Letterkenny, based on the hit web series of the same name, and the Super Channel comedy What Would Sal do?. Montefiore also recently produced the Whistler Film Fest and Toronto Film Festival Film Circuit Audience Choice winning feature film, Cas & Dylan, starring Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss, Golden Globe nominee Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and directed by Jason Priestley (90210). Montefiore has several award-winning films to his credit including his debut feature film, Easting Buccaneers and The Armoire
. Mark has worked with Executive Producers Mark McKinney (SNL, Kids in the Hall) and Garry Campbell (MadTV) to produce The Comedy Network sketch series Picnicface, which won 3 Canadian Comedy Awards.

Michael Souther is the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Amaze Film & Television along with partner, Teza Lawrence. He is an executive producer of Call Me Fitz, a half-hour comedy series for HBO Canada, which has sold into 192 territories and won numerous awards, including Best Comedy Series at the 2014 and 2015 Canadian Screen Awards. Souther is currently producing the second season of the half-hour multi camera series, The Stanley Dynamic, for YTV. Previous projects include the Genie nominated feature film, Saint Ralph (2004), Finn on the Fly (2008) and Being Canadian (2015), which premiered at Hot Docs and is nominated for a 2016 WGA Award for Best Documentary.