This recession may have led some producers to move into their cars, but not The Nightingale Company, which will see its series Living in Your Car premiere Friday on HBO Canada.

‘We’re little but we’re aggressive,’ says boss Debbie Nightingale of her company, which has doubled its production volume despite the economic downturn. ‘And we have our eye on the U.S.’

Between 2007 and ’09, production at the six-person Nightingale Company went from $11 million to $21.1 million and this cheeky sitcom, exec produced by David Steinberg (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld), was the main engine.

The 13 x 30 series follows the karmic adventures of fallen corporate exec Steve Unger (John Ralston of This Is Wonderland), who lands among the ‘have nots’ after he’s caught cooking the books. He loses everything except his wheels.

Nightingale says when Wall Street crashed in 2008, the company refocused on development and ‘nurturing its relationship’ with writers George F. Walker, Dani Romain and Joseph Kay, who co-penned this series. The company has also developed strategic relationships stateside and in Europe.

Portugal’s beActive topper Nuno Bernardo also invested in Living in Your Car and Nightingale says the two companies also have a co-venture agreement through which they partner on other projects, mainly online.

Nonetheless, she admits that ‘there’s no real dough for that yet,’ and says when it comes to the multiplatform CMF funding: ‘I think we’re still trying to understand it.’

Meanwhile, The Nightingale Company has opened a one-person office in L.A. and is working with sister company Gorilla Media on an upcoming ‘factual’ show.

For more on The Nightingale Company and how its numbers rank against those of the competition, watch for Playback’s annual Indie List in the May 24 print edition.