Christina Jennings wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to read scripts and she goes to bed at 9:30 p.m. watching screeners. However, if 20th century labels like ‘workaholic’ or ‘micro-manager’ come to mind, hit the ‘delete’ button. Playback’s Person of the Year is a new hybrid.

Jennings might be founder, chair and co-CEO of Shaftesbury Films, English Canada’s hottest production company – celebrating its 20th anniversary next year – but she exudes the warmth and vitality of a soup-kitchen volunteer and speaks of coworkers as ‘family.’

‘Christina stands apart,’ says John L’Ecuyer, director of 24 episodes of Shaftesbury’s signature series ReGenesis, and a member of Jennings’ extended family.

‘She’s an attractive woman, a wife and mother who thinks nothing of working 100 hours a week and having people come over for wine and supper on Sunday night,’ says L’Ecuyer, ‘Christina really pulls it all together.’

Jennings sounds like superwoman, but her co-CEO and president Jonathan Barker calls her a ‘humanist.’

‘She’s always ready to hear someone who has a personal problem – and she’s a great, totally dedicated mom,’ he says.

An extraordinarily successful self-made businesswoman by any definition, Jennings excels at making others shine, and she does it by nurturing – not badgering – the talent that surrounds her every move.

‘A producer is very much like a mother or a father,’ Jennings explains. ‘You’ve got all of these people who have to be tended to. If you’re a director, I have to support you to be your best; and I have to support the writer; and I have to make sure the actors are comfortable in their working situation. Often it’s just about making sure that everyone performs their best.’

Jennings sounds like the keeper of the hearth. There’s no escaping that she has a depth to her character that translates from her personal to her working life. She lives with an adopted daughter, Maxi, and life partner, the British producer Patrick Cassavetti, and daily family meals together are sacred.

She also considers the casts and crews of Shaftesbury’s series as extended family members. The fourth and final season of award-winning family series Life with Derek is in the can (with two related MOWs in the works), as is the fourth season of the edgy science thriller ReGenesis (see story, p. 17). There are plenty of emotions as the two shows wrap for the season, and Jennings says, ‘Well, this company is a family. You know, if I look around, most of the people at Shaftesbury have been here a long, long time.’

Core Shaftesbury players such as Laura Harbin (VP production) and Scott Garvie (SVP business and legal affairs) have seen the company grow in production spending from $2.9 million in 1995 to a projected $81.5 million next year.

Those are the kind of numbers that often trigger IPOs in the entertainment industry, but Jennings says that isn’t in the cards. She then reflects and adds: ‘We quite love being a privately held company; that’s what we like. We’re not interested in becoming a public company, at least not now.’

Jennings says she took careful note of how rival companies changed once answering to shareholder demands, and how that affected production.

‘When you become a publicly driven company, you are driven by the numbers and if [a show] will be delivered in this quarter,’ Jennings explains. ‘We’re more about quality. A show is delivered when a show is ready to be delivered.’

Shaftesbury’s financing structure is similar to that of most Canadian production companies. Each project is financed via a combination of international presales, tax credits, the Canadian Television Fund, broadcaster licence fees and private equity funds, such as Cogeco’s or The Harold Greenberg Fund.

Jennings says that Shaftesbury’s success ultimately boils down to the creative elements and how they are sold.

‘It’s all been about the creative,’ she says. ‘I think I’m a pretty good deal maker…but at the end of the day, if I don’t actually have something that’s worth selling, then what have I got?’

Jennings is very matter-of-fact and analyzes everything – scripts, people, projects. Not surprisingly, she is frank about her own skills.

When asked about her strengths, she pauses to consider and then replies, ‘I have two. I think I actually have a very good nose for stories and talent…directors, writers and actors. And the other thing is that I believe in treating people well.’

The latter claim is vindicated by the gratitude and accolades that colleagues love to bestow upon her. A prime example is from this year’s Gemini Awards when thespian Wendy Crewson, upon winning best supporting actress for ReGenesis, used her acceptance speech to valorize her producer.

‘I really want to thank Christina Jennings, who keeps half this room employed,’ laughed Crewson, and the room laughed with her.

The night belonged to Jennings, as Shaftesbury productions and copros claimed seven statuettes, and each attending winner thanked Jennings for her unwavering support. The unusual part of that scenario is that the kudos were not perfunctory – they were heartfelt.

In total, Shaftesbury was nominated for 42 Geminis in 2007 for 10 productions, including MOWs In God’s Country, Eight Days to Live, Me & Luke and Booky Makes Her Mark, the cancelled comedy series The Jane Show and Life with Derek.

At the earlier Directors Guild of Canada awards, Shaftesbury productions won five prizes after having been nominated 17 times.

All this success begs the questions: Who is Christina Jennings and where did she pick up all this knowledge of the film and television business? The story is hardly a typical one.

Jennings started out as an owner of Emilio’s, the coolest restaurant on Toronto’s Queen Street East back in the early ’80s, when the area was being redefined as the city’s media mecca by Citytv. At that time, Jennings was making sandwiches by day and serving wine by night. She became fascinated by her clients (and her clients by her). The mutual admiration society included CHUM’s Jay Switzer and the Astral Media folks, who also were nearby.

After some prompting to take the plunge into production, Jennings put together deals for a low-budget Canuck whodunit feature called Cottage Country (she has no credit on the film) and fell in love with the biz. The young Crewson was one of the film’s stars, and that picture marked the beginning of their long and fruitful friendship and professional collaboration.

Jennings’ empire began auspiciously soon after when she packaged her first feature film, Camilla, with stars Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda, and with Deepa Mehta directing from a script by Paul Quarrington. Over the next five years, Jennings produced one film a year – including Swann (1996) and Painted Angels (1998) – before she moved into the more lucrative television market.

‘None of [the features] burst out, to be honest,’ says Jennings. ‘I would lie awake at night thinking, ‘I’m not sure what will happen next.’ By that point there were seven or eight of us at Shaftesbury, and I’d think, ‘What if a movie doesn’t go? Am I going to have to lay everybody off?”

Fortunately, by that point, one of Shaftesbury’s original players, Jonathan Barker, had returned to the company, bringing his expertise with large-format productions from IMAX with him.

‘We agreed that we should diversify the product line,’ recalls Barker. ‘We needed to build television. It didn’t take a genius for us to understand that there was a business in Canadian TV and it was very tough to make features.’

Jennings slowly created a diverse slate, producing three Murdoch Mysteries TV movies (the franchise continues in series format next year) and three Joanne Kilbourn Mysteries, as well as kids fare, including the 1999 feature Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang and live-action series Screech Owls. Meanwhile, Barker produced large-format films including Straight Up (about helicopters) and Bugs! (see story, p. 20).

By 2002, the company had an independent production volume of $25 million and the creative team grew again. Julie Lacey joined Shaftesbury as VP creative along with script editor Suzanne French (VP kids) and supervising editor Adam Haight. Shane Kinnear also came aboard, as head of sales and marketing, which Jennings says was a turning point.

‘Things really cranked up…We became a sales agent,’ says Jennings. ‘We now have a stream of revenue, which is the sale of our programs,’ and that ultimately changed everything.

Diversified revenue streams have given Shaftesbury the freedom it longed for to have better creative control. It’s allowed Jennings to place the right people in the right jobs – her hardest and most creative task at the company. ‘If I’m Playback’s Person of the Year, it’s because of the great team who work here,’ she says.