PRODUCTION TEAM

PAUL A. KAUFMAN was born in London, England. He is an accomplished Emmy Award winning director and producer. Kaufman made his directorial debut on his long cherished project, "Run the Wild Fields" for Showtime, which earned numerous critical honors, including an Emmy Award for Best Director.  The movie stars Joanne Whalley, Sean Patrick Flanery and Alexa Vega. Paul has had overall producing deals at Warner Brothers/HBO, Artisan, Alliance Atlantis and Fox Television Studios and has produced  23 movies and is also a director of television series. He recently finished directing "Ransom" for CBS which is Frank Spotnitz's ("Man in the High Castle" "X-Files") new series.  He is a regular director on the top-rated CBS television series, "NCIS: Los Angeles" and  "Criminal Minds:Beyond Borders" Starring Academy Award Winner, Gary Sinise.  He is also a regular director on the critically acclaimed series "Rogue" which stars Cole Hauser and Thandie Newton. Other series he has directed include, “The Mentalist”, “Grimm” and “The Bridge”. Kaufman was honored with a Directors Guild of Canada nomination for Best Director for his highly acclaimed television movie, "Magic Beyond Words: The JK Rowling Story". It stars Poppy Montgomery in the title role, based on the woman who wrote Harry Potter. The movie which Kaufman also produced, won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Television Movie or Miniseries. He won an NAACP Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries for the critically acclaimed movie he produced and directed, "Sins of the Mother" starring Jill Scott and Nicole Behari.  He also directed the Imagen Award winning movie "Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story".  Kaufman also produced the highly acclaimed movie "Jewel," which starred Farrah Fawcett and Cicely Tyson. The movie was nominated for the Humanitas Award. He served two terms on the Board of Governors at The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences where he also served as the Chairman of The Primetime Emmy Awards, where he supervised and oversaw the awards show and telecast. He has also served on the Television Committee at BAFTA and been a guest speaker at AFI, UCLA, USC and other colleges. He is a member of The Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, The Writers Guild of America, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, The Directors Guild of Canada and The Producers Guild of America. He is a citizen of The United Kingdom, The United States and Canada.

J. TODD HARRIS is the president of Branded Pictures Entertainment which focuses on creating successful film, television and stage productions. He has produced 45 films including the critically acclaimed “The Kids Are All Right” starring Annette Benning, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffallo. This $3.5 million indie film went on to gross over $34,000,000 and won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture and Best Performance for an Actress for Benning. It also received 4 Academy Award Nominations. Other films by Harris include “Bottle Shock”, starring Chris Pine and Bill Pullman, “Crooked Arrows” and “Jeepers Creepers”. Five of the films he’s produced have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, including “Digging to China” Starring Evan Rachel Wood and Kevin Bacon, “Urbania” and “Lewis & Clark & George” starring Rose McGowen. Other films have played nearly every major film festival in the world, including Toronto, Tribeca, SxSW, Deauville, Montreal and many others. He is a founding board member of the Napa Valley Film Festival. His latest feature releases from the fall of 2017 include “So B. It” starring Alfre Woodard, John Heard, Dash Mihok, Cloris Leachman, Jacinda Barrett and Talitha Bateman, and “Wheelman” starring Frank Grillo, which debuted on Netflix. He most recently produced “Elsewhere” starring Aden Young, Parker Posey, Ken Jeong, Beau Bridges and Jacki Weaver. The film will be released later this year. For television, Harris is developing a series based on the acclaimed and controversial book The Blondes for AMC’s horror channel Shudder. J. Todd Harris’ stage history includes producer credits on the musical production “Doctor Zhivago”, “Heathers The Musical” and, most recently, the stage musical production of “American Psycho”. He is also a producer on the upcoming “Soul Train”, a high-energy musical inspired by the long-running TV show. He has been an adjunct professor at Chapman University’s MFA program and the Los Angeles campus of Syracuse University. Harris is a 19-year member of the Motion Picture Academy and the Producers Guild of America and the Broadway League. He earned his BA and MBA from Stanford University and lives in Los Angeles with his wife Amy Powers, a songwriter, and their two sons.

CHRISTINA SIBUL is an independent producer who’s had the pleasure of working with many of the industry’s top filmmakers, including Tom McCarthy, Alexander Payne, Catherine Hardwicke and alongside producers such as Michael London, Liza Chasin and Effie Brown. As a career development and production executive, movies that she’s had a hand in developing and seeing through production include THIRTEEN, SIDEWAYS, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS, THE GURU, THE STATION AGENT, THE VISITOR, and LORDS OF DOGTOWN among many others. Recent movies include TRAFFICK (starring Paula Patton, Laz Alsonso and Omar Epps) and BIRTH OF THE DRAGON (Dir. George Nolfi). A highly sought industry consultant, she has consulted for Lionsgate’s Codeblack Division, and has many other projects in development. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Christina has a long and varied literary past, having spent time and worked with writers from Charles Bukowski to Arthur Miller and artistic collaborators from George C. Wolfe to David Fincher.  She’s a Film Independent Producing Fellow.

GREG GARDINER has worked on a diverse range of projects, including the motion pictures “The Best Man Holiday,” with director Malcolm D. Lee, Chris Ashley’s Independent musical “Lucky Stiff,” and director Nick Hamm’s Venice Film festival drama “The Journey” with Colm Meany and Timothy Spall. His filmmaker’s touch with slice of life comedies is vast including – “Orange County,” “Men In Black II,” “Elf,” “She’s The Man,” “The War with Grandpa,” “Girl’s Trip,” and now “Night School.” He just wrapped another great Will Packer film - the family magical comedy “Little.” Greg began his filmmaking career in the lighting department, working as a gaffer on such seminal films as “Paris Texas,” “Repo Man,” and “To Live and Die in LA.” He earned the Cinematography Award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and a nomination for Best Cinematography at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards for the Black and White filmed “Suture.”

JEFF TOYNE is a Canadian composer who is currently scoring the television comedy series Hit the Road (2017), starring Jason Alexander. His most recent film scores include 9/11 (2017) starring Charlie Sheen, and Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) (2017) starring Rainn Wilson. In his music, Toyne blends orchestral virtuosity with cutting-edge technology, creating a unique voice for each project. His feature credits for independent cinema include Life on The Line (2015) starring John Travolta and Sharon Stone, How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town (2015) starring Jewel Staite, Hot Bot (2015) starring Donald Faison and Danny Masterson, A Year and Change (2013) starring Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung, Abel’s Field (2013) starring Kevin Sorbo, and Dirty Girl (2011) starring Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich and William H. Macy. In addition to dramas and comedies, Toyne scored indie horror thrillers The Privileged (2013), Murder on the 13 Floor (2012), Blooded (2011), The Third Eye (2007) and Shadow in the Trees (2007). Equally at home in television, Toyne has scored two series for Direct TV: Rogue (2013-2017) starring Thandie Newton, (winner of the 2017 Leo Award for Best Musical Score in a Dramatic Series) and You Me Her (2016-) starring Rachel Blanchard & Greg Poehler. Jeff has scored several features for Lifetime including Twist of Faith (2013) starring Toni Braxton, and Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story (2011) starring Poppy Montgomery - winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best TV Movie, nominated for Best Score and winner of the MPSE Golden Reel Award for music editing. Among his credits Mr. Toyne counts over fifty short films, including two Academy Award nominees. He is also an orchestrator of over 100 Hollywood releases including The Mummy (2016), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and District 9 (2009). The recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, Toyne was named one of Playback Magazine’s “Ten to Watch” in 2011. He has been commissioned by organizations such as the Canadian Armed Forces, for which he composed “Splendor Sine Occasu”, the unofficial March of the British Columbia Brigade. In 2007, Toyne was accepted as one of six composers to attend the prestigious Sundance Composers Lab.

JONATHAN McHUGH Jonathan McHugh has music supervised the music for over 70 feature films and TV shows including currently the up coming HBO/Cinemax show “Jett” and the indy film “Butter.” McHugh who has held high-level corporate film & music creative executive positions at New Line Cinema/Warner Brothers; (VP Soundtracks,) Sony/Zomba/Jive Records (Sr. VP Film & TV), Universal/IDJ Records (Sr. VP Visual Media) over the past few decades. In 2018 he music supervised the acclaimed Lionsgate film and produced the Universal Records soundtrack to “Blindspotting,” for which he was recognized for his 2nd Guild of Music Supervisor nomination (Janis: Little Girl Blue” was the first. ) Some of the many films he have done include ”Spare Parts," “Ping Pong Summer” the Peter Jackson produced documentary “West of Memphis,” “Hot Bot,” the “Saw” film series and the Televisa Films comedy “Sundown.” McHugh has music supervised and co-produced over 30 films and TV shows including most recently “Cowboy Drifter' “Sun Records” “We Are X,” and “Janis: Little Girl Blue” with Academy Award winning producer Alex Gibney and Academy Award nominated director Amy Berg. Some of the films/TV shows he has produced/co-produced include Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never,” Sony Classics documentary “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” Lionsgate’s “Repo The Generic Opera,” Lifetime’s “Flying By”The Paramount film “Crossroads” and Discovery’s “Battle Ground Earth.” McHugh also co-wrote and produced the Lions Gate feature film “Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror” staring Jason Alexander, Danny Trejo and Anson Mount. As Vice President of Soundtracks at New Line Cinema McHugh co-produced many platinum & gold soundtracks including “Austin Powers”, “The Wedding Singer”, “Boogie Nights,” “Rush Hour,” “Blade” “Mortal Combat 2”, “Love Jones,” and “Money Talks.” McHugh is an adjunct Professor at American University in Washington, DC where he teaches Film Music studies. He is also a Documentary committee juror of the Producers Guild and the Secretary and founding member of the Guild of Music Supervisors.

TANNIS VALLELY was born into this business the child of actor/director/writer parents. She grew up in NYC working as a child actor in theatre, tv and film then moved to Los Angeles where she became a costar on the successful ABC sitcom “Head of the Class”. After graduating from Stanford University, Tannis shifted her focus from acting to behind the scenes where she learned the art of casting from a master – Debra Zane. As an associate CD, Tannis collaborated with some of the most talented directors in the world including Spielberg, Soderbergh, Bill Condon, Sam Mendes and Ridley Scott. As a Casting Director, Tannis works in both television as well as studio and independent features.  Select recent credits include kids casting for the upcoming Amblin film "The Turning" and local casting on "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as well as FreeForm's mermaid series "Siren" and the Netflix film "Dude".