The People
About Us
Cream Productions is a leader in the field of factual entertainment, bringing unique expertise and decades of combined experience together to produce world-class programming for distinguished international clients. Since its inception in 2003, Cream has become internationally recognized for its award-winning factual series and specials.
Christopher Rowley - Co-Founder, Director & Producer
Christopher is a widely accomplished and multiple-award winning director with an international reputation. His distinguished career has spanned three continents and encompasses all areas of film from documentary to features, music video to television series and commercials.
After graduating in Graphic Arts and Photography in London, England he first entered the film industry in the camera department, working on features with Polanski and Truffaut, as well as classic television series such as The Avengers and The Prisoner. Christopher began writing and directing for The Film Producers Guild in London. He worked on documentary films for private and government agencies around the world before moving to South Africa where he founded Image Producers . Over the course of a few short years, Image became the country's leading film production house. Christopher directed over four hundred productions - documentaries, commercials and two features. He also won many international awards, including Lions at the prestigious Venice and Cannes TV Advertising film festivals. After moving to Canada in 1986 he continued his career and won two Bessies for TV commercials. Christopher directed the Cable Ace award-winning four one-hour series, "Dinosaur" hosted by Walter Cronkite, a co-production with A&E, Global and Granada. In 1990, Christopher co-founded CineNova Productions Inc. and was responsible for producing and directing over 40 films, again garnering many awards, for leading broadcasters including Discovery Channel USA, Channel 4 UK, National Geographic Channel U.S., National Geographic Channels Intl., Mediaset (Italy), ZDF (Germany), Alliance Atlantis, France 3, Canal+, CBC Canada, TLC, Discovery Health, History Channel and more.
With the founding of Cream Productions in 2003, Christopher has continued to be in the vanguard of factual production.
David W. Brady - Co-Founder & Executive Producer
A creative and entrepreneurial producer working in both dramatic and documentary genres, David Brady has developed, financed and produced a large array of high-end international projects. In 2003, he co-founded Cream Productions and has since concentrated on expanding the company into the international marketplace, including forging strategic treaty coproduction relationships. At Cream, David oversees the A to Z - development, financing and production - of all of Cream's output and spearheads the business development of the company. Recent Cream productions include science specials like Aftermath: The World Without Humans produced for History Television, National Geographic US, and ProSieben; and The Great Sperm Race, coproduced with Blink Films UK for Discovery Canada and Channel 4. The Underground War, which David co-directed was a hit on History Television and broke ratings records on Channel 4. Cream recently produced a four part historical docudrama mini-series with Darlow Smithson in the UK, and is also producing three new returnable fact-ent series for Canadian and international partners. David is also the co-founder of Survivorman Productions Inc. and, as executive producer and producer; he is behind the hit series Survivorman, one of OLN/City TV and Discovery US's recent breakout hits. Survivorman has also spawned the new kids/teen series Survive This!, which is a hit in its first season on YTV Canada.
Mark Carter - Director of Operations
Mark has recently been appointed from his four year term as Head of Production, to Director of Operations with Cream Productions.
Mark Carter is an accomplished and prolific Producer, leader, and manager with an extensive thirty-year background in television program and commercial film production, sales, and management.
Prior to joining Cream Productions Mark worked as the Supervising Producer / Producer playing a critical role in creative development of the Lynette Jennings, Design series with Spring River Productions for eight years in the United States for the Discovery Network, producing over four hundred hours of this top rated home improvement series. Mark was also one of the Co-Producers of the one hundred and thirty-five hour daytime drama Family Passions for CTV and NDF Germany. Other series credits include Cross Country Cookin, and All You Can Be.
Mark had spent many years as a commercial writer in Alberta and British Columbia before moving to Ontario to become a successful producer of television commercials for National advertisers.
Michael Turner - Head of Business Affairs
Michael Turner, a corporate and entertainment lawyer, looks after Cream's business and legal affairs. Michael has vast experience in dealing with International Co-Productions including treaty regulatory requirements, financing, tax implications, and distribution. He has specifically worked on numerous UK Co-Production agreements with such companies as IWC, ITN, and Blink Entertainment. He is adept at dealing with broadcasters from around the world.
Sandra Galloway - Production Accountant
Sandra is a highly qualified production accountant with many years of experience having worked on numerous feature films and television projects including "Chicago" and "Shipping News". She fully understands the intricacies of production and co-production funding, as well as all accounting requirements, and has efficiently and effectively maintained the steady day-to-day financial course of Cream Productions for the past five years.
Kate Harrison - Head of Production
Prior to joining Cream, Kate spent 5 years as the Vice President of Peace Arch Motion Pictures, the production arm of the Peace Arch Entertainment Group. She has a strong background in dramatic production, having produced over 30 feature films and MOWs, including work as the Production Supervisor on CBC and Showtime's acclaimed historical drama series The Tudors. Prior to that she did a two year stint in the Vancouver office of Telefilm Canada, and she also spent two years working as Manager of Business Affairs for the Toronto based documentary producer White Pine Pictures.
Stephen Milton - Creative Director - Science & History
Stephen has a long track record of producing specials and series for National Geographic and The Discovery Channel.Stephen has co-produced two seasons of the popular Mean Machines series for Discovery, and is now writing and producing National Geographic's futuristic Aftermath special. Stephen has a strong background in history and science, which is reflected in his work on recent specials such as 'Digging up the Trenches', a World War One doc, and 'San Francisco's Great 'Quake'.
Janet Brady - Head of Post-Production
Janet started out in the industry as a project coordinator at a visual effects and post production house before moving into the world of broadcast documentaries. As Post Supervisor and Production Manager on the debut season of Survivorman, Janet got her first taste of Factual Entertainment. Since 2005, Janet has run the post production department at Cream. As Head of Post-Production she juggles numerous shows, wrangling all production elements (including wayward producers) to get projects delivered on schedule. Hallelujah!
Matthew Booi - Associate Producer
A former history teacher, Matt would like to thank Cream for giving him the chance --during a casting session--to participate in an improv with a brother of a member of a famous Canadian comedy troop. It was a dream come true. Sadly, Matt was not asked to participate in call backs. He was heart-broken but he did take solace in the fact that now that his dreams of hosting were dashed, he could now put all his efforts into his fallback profession, researching documentaries.
Yasmine Abbasakoor - Co-Director of Development
yabbasakoor@creamproductions.ca
Since joining Cream full-time in February 2007, Yasmine has become a bona fide development maven (connoisseur?). Between trips to The World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, MIP TV and Hot Docs, she has worked with world class writers, producers, and broadcasters developing ratings hits for channels such as Discovery, National Geographic and Channel 4. Yasmine loves being immersed in the realm of ideas -generating them - and selling them. She has a deep and utter love for the boob tube, so this is the perfect world for her to be in. Prior to becoming part of the Cream Team, Yasmine built a background in production and writing. She wrote freelance for factual TV development, and coordinated the writing room for the W Network lifestyle/sitcom hybrid the Smart Woman Survival Guide. At SWSG she broke stories (prepping her for current world of nonstop new ideas), coordinated with production, wrote scripts and uncovered a million useful tips. Yasmine has also worked as an associate producer at commercial house, Malette Media, and as a documentary production manager at In Sync Video.
Jenn Kuzmyk Ruch - Co-Director of Development
Jenn joined the ‘Cream Team’ in September 2008. Combining her passion for creativity and the international TV business, she has worked with world class writers, producers, and broadcasters developing for global brands such as Discovery Channel, History Television, National Geographic and Channel 4. Prior to joining Cream, Jenn spent a decade as the Canadian Bureau Chief and an Editor for C21Media.net, a leading UK-based trade publisher specializing in the global business of television and multi-platform content. She also launched and edited C21's Factual Week, an online news and analysis source concerning the world of documentary and factual programming. Jenn has a background in international TV/film distribution, and has written scripts for popular kids and factual TV series. She has also survived as a freelance journalist, a TV development consultant and a film critic. Jenn has served as a moderator or panelist at film and TV industry events such as Hot Docs, SXSW, CFTPA Prime Time, and the Banff World Television Festival, speaking on issues such as distribution of digital content, trends in documentary and factual programming, and the global trade of program formats. .
Tina Kallimanis - Deliverables and Media Management Supervisor
tkallimanis@creamproductions.ca
Don't people do the freelance thing after working at one place for a while? Not! She began her career almost 10 years ago as a freelancer for various productions and post-production facilities and it's taken this long to finally "settle down". Cream has been her home for almost a year now and, like her freelancing days, she still juggles different productions at the same time. Tina decided to leave the edit suite but couldn't part from the post-production rollercoaster ride. As post-production coordinator, she facilitates the needs of the editors and producers, the shows, and all the technical hiccups that always come up and seem to never go away. The rollercoaster ride at Cream is definitely proving to be an exciting one as the company is growing quite successfully and quickly and Tina is pleased to be a part of it.
Tim Friese - Production Manager
Having worked in the commercial production side of the film industry for 7 years, Tim had learned quite a bit about how a production works. Then one day later in that timeline, Tim wound up being a Production Assistant on a docudrama directed by none other than Mr. Christopher Rowley. Tim was hooked with the style and pace of the docudrama production. Working on these types of productions has given Tim a better understanding of production as a whole as well as forging new relationships, both professionally and socially, thus making him more skilled in his management of the many productions he has, is, and will be working on.
Sprite's Diva - Belgian Tervuren - Company Therapist
Diva was born in May 2003 and joined Cream Productions in January 2005. In October 2006 she achieved her Schutzhund 1 qualification (Schutzhund is a multi-disciplinary dogsport involving tracking, obedience, agility and protection). In May 2007 she gained her Schutzhund 11. In October 2007 she attained the highest level in the sport - the first female Belgian Tervuren in Canada to do so. Diva had her screen debut as she watched the satellites crash to Earth in "Aftermath: Population Zero". She is currently resting on the reception couch waiting for the phone to ring.