FORD CASSELLA PRODUCTIONS
Ford Cassella is a new digital production company in development under the principal guidance of Katie Ford and Maggie Cassella. Currently in the R&D stages, trust us, this one’s gonna be waaaay different. Until then a little about the principals:
KATIE FORD
Katie Ford is a writer and producer for film and television. She co-wrote and co-produced the feature film Miss Congeniality and wrote and produced Desperate Housewives, Family Ties, and Transporter. She wrote the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated movie Prayers for Bobby and more recently was co-creator and show-runner of Working the Engels starring Andrea Martin for NBC universal and Shaw.
Katie is also a stand-up and monologuist who’s performed in and around Toronto alongside the incomparable Diane Flacks, the musical Jane Ford, and the quirky Shannon McDonough as a regular in V is for Variety. A monthly show at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Besides Ford Cassella, Katie has a very impressive start-up happening called FlagshipTV backed by AOL who’ve called it one of the best new ideas they’ve seen in a long time.
Katie just got a new/used dog named Colby. He is 10 years young.
MAGGIE CASSELLA
Maggie Cassella is not just a pretty face. Okay scratch that. Maggie Cassella is not just a talented performer.
From appearing on air, to executive producing and producing (live and broadcast), to writing and development, Maggie Cassella has tackled nearly every aspect of the business of show. Up until their recent fire, she was producing seven live shows a week at The Flying Beaver Pubaret a venue she co-owned.
The Pubaret was rated amongst the Top Five Restaurants for Live Music in Toronto by BlogTO and amongst the Top Ten Places to Visit When You Come to Toronto by Canadian Living.
Maggie has produced everything from week long festivals to individual events to radio and television. She is adept at obtaining sponsors through writing and presenting sponsorship decks (throwing in just un soupçon de begging) and is a promotion machine using every avenue from social media to literally handing out flyers. If you need butts in seats, Maggie’s your gal. Her production experience spans 20 years and her credits are too numerous to list but here are some highlights of what Maggie has done.
• Produced 6 shows over 3 days in Palm Springs California for hugely diverse musical and comedy acts including Joan Jett and her band, The Pussycat Dolls, The Kathy (Najimy) and Mo (Gaffney) show, En Vogue, Grammy winner Thea Austin, and Bonnie Pointer.
• 15 years of producing the we’re funny that way(tm) comedy festival. A four day charity comedy festival that Maggie founded/executive produced (more money raising)/produced and hosted.
• Maggie is also able to, and does, host many of the productions she produces. Which means she’s in control of making sure your event runs on time because you don’t have to worry about an MC who doesn’t understand time constraints translating into time = money = over budget = bored audience = unhappiness abounding.
• Since the early 2000’s Maggie has been a television field producer for the US TV show Extra. Besides interviewing just about everyone who’s anyone, this job requires organization of crew (camera, sound, and sometimes talent), securing positions from which to shoot, viewing and pre-editing tape, and feeding tape via satellite.
• Maggie also produced six episodes of The Vent a TV series (OutTV) that she co-created, executive produced, wrote, rough cut (edited), and delivered for broadcast.
• Maggie has story edited for TV (Planet Soap) and documentary film (Garbage: The Revolution Begins at Home).
• Maggie executive produced, wrote, and hosted, her own drive time radio show.
• Maggie has acted as a consultant to CBC’s The Current.
Here’s a recommendation Maggie received after producing an event for The Office of The Provincial Advocate for Children & Youth:
In 2012 The Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children & Youth chose The Flying Beaver to host a launch event because we wanted to work with Maggie Cassella. I can’t speak highly enough about Maggie… Maggie in particular was consistently gracious, personable and generous with her time and advice. She has worked in event production for many years and she guided us perfectly in creating the kind of event we wanted – all the while making it look easy. From a production, programming and technical point of view – she knows it all! And as a comic she is also a lot of fun to be around. We got a lot of compliments from clients about that. Glitches and problems are fodder for laughter when you are working with Maggie! It is a pleasure to recommend Maggie Cassella as a speaker, host, producer, programming, event planner and more.
-Janis Purdy Advocate, The Office of The Provincial Advocate for Children & Youth