Credits include Motive, Call Me Fitz, Fido
TORONTO – Renowned writer/producer Dennis Heaton is joining the 2017 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program as the executive producer in residence to lead a story room of television writers as he develops an original series, Bell Media and the Canadian Film Centre announced Tuesday.
The 2017 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program, presented in association with ABC Signature Studios, provides a real-world story room experience for six TV writers a year. From this September to December, Heaton will lead a group of soon-to-be announced TV writers through the story room development of his original series.
Heaton (pictured) is an award-winning writer and producer whose work spans multiple genres and formats, from animation to live-action, web series to feature film, half hour comedy to hour-long drama. He is currently executive producing and writing for Ghost Wars, a new horror series for SyFy and Netflix, and recently completed showrunning the internationally renowned police procedural Motive. His additional live-action credits include Call Me Fitz (which won Canadian Screen Award in 2014), The Listener, JPod, Blood Ties and the feature film Fido.
He has also been nominated for four Gemini Awards, four WGC Screenwriting Awards (winning for his Yvon of the Yukon animation script, “The Trouble With Mammoths”) and nine Leo Awards (of which he won five). His 2009 web series, My Pal, Satan, won Best Web Series and Best Theme Song at the New York Television Festival. His 2006 short film, Head Shot, premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, won Best Canadian Short Film at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, and went on to play in film festivals around the world.
Heaton has multiple projects in development, including Damage Control, a new police procedural with Lark, NBCU and Corus Entertainment, and the feature comedy Larry’s Awesome Kegger, which he hopes will be his directorial debut.
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to work with the CFC as the Executive Producer in Residence for the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program,” said Heaton. “The CFC has long been an integral component in my development as a writer. Almost 20 years ago, the Prime Time’s predecessor, the Writer’s Bootcamp, first exposed me to the myriad of opportunities a working screenwriter has at their disposal. Then the Pilot Program gave me hands-on experience writing and executive producing a multi-episode series (My Pal, Satan). And the CFC’s Bell Media Showrunner Bootcamp was an Oz-like peek behind the curtain into the secret machinations of the television industry. Simply put, my career would not be what it is without the assistance and support of the CFC, and I’m proud to be able to pay it forward with the next generation of Canadian storytellers.”
The 2017 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program participants will be announced in the coming weeks, with the program officially underway on September 18, 2017. Click here to learn more about the program.
