When Andrea Gabourie took the decision to strike out on her own, she wanted her new prodco to play to her strengths as a veteran of both the Canadian and U.S. TV industries, bringing with her the perspectives of both a broadcast insider as well as an independent producer.

As a result, the former Corus exec founded Forté Entertainment in April this year in order to pursue her wide-ranging production interests. The prodco’s remit is broad — factual, branded, lifestyle and kids content for an international market — which Gabourie says is an imperative against the current industry backdrop.

“I absolutely believe in developing a diverse range of content. Especially in a time of great competition and when broadcasters themselves are looking to shake up their offerings, I feel it’s important to be able to produce great content across multiple genres,” she told Playback Daily. 

Gabourie serves as the president and executive producer of the company, which has announced a slate of three projects currently in the works: Hello Goodbye for CBC, Snapshots for Kids’ CBC and another untitled series with Corus Entertainment’s W Network.

Hello Goodbye is a documentary series created in partnership with Pivotal Media and is set to air on the pubcaster in winter 2016. With the format – which centres around capturing emotional greetings and farewells at airports – proving a global success since it debuted on Holland’s Nederland 1 channel in 2005, the CBC approached Gabourie more than a year ago and asked her to develop the project. Once Dale Kurd was secured as show host, the CBC greenlit the project and it went into production immediately, Gabourie told Playback Daily.

Snapshots, which is currently in development, is a series co-created by Gabourie and her husband Mitch Gabourie of Headtrip Films. Having received funding under the Bell Fund’s Development Online Program, the show is scheduled to air on Kids’ CBC at an unspecified date.

The project being developed by Forté and Corus’ W Network is an unscripted TV series about women and fashion, seen from a business perspective. Further announcements regarding the series are planned for the upcoming months, said Gabourie.

Gabourie is no stranger to Corus, having served for two years as director of live-action productions until 2012 when she and fellow exec Simon Watts left the company to found indie prodco Pivotal Media.

She said her experience on both sides of the broadcast equation positions her and Forté well to succeed. “Having worked both inside and outside of broadcasters, I think I bring a different level of understanding to the table than other independent producers. Broadcasters have their own unique challenges and I understand those needs from an insider’s perspective,” she noted.

Along with the announcement of the prodco’s launch, Forté also announced its first hires. In September, 2014 Shaw Media mentorship program recipient Natalie Schenk  joined the company as head of development/producer, while Christina Carvalho was named head of production/producer.

“They are that next great generation of storytellers, both with a sophisticated sense of content production and storytelling,” said Gabourie.

Gabourie’s credits include Let’s Get Hitched (CBC), Life Story Project (OWN Canada), Project Runway Canada (Global and Slice) and How to Look Good Naked Canada (W Network, OWN Canada).