Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Media company, has promoted founding partner Steve Gamester to creative director of feature docs, copros and limited series to help expand the company’s factual portfolio.

He begins the role effective immediately at the Toronto-based factual and scripted prodco, the company announced on Thursday (Nov. 17).

Gamester’s new remit has him responsible for building innovative content strategies and strengthening the prodco’s relationships with producers to grow the company’s factual slate. He will work closely with Saloon Media’s senior producer Elizabeth St. Philip.

Gamester has worked as a broadcaster, executive producer, showrunner and development executive for clients in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. His work has been nominated for over 30 Canadian Screen Awards. The documentary 9/11 Kids, which Gamester produced under Saloon Media, won the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary in 2021 and the Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Feature in 2020.

Meanwhile, the documentary Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust, on which Gamester served as an executive producer, was nominated for the 2021 Realscreen Award for the History and Biography program, a 2020 Rockie Award, and six Canadian Screen Awards. His other docs at Saloon include Searching for Secrets, World’s Most Scenic River Journeys and Hunting Nazi Treasure.

Before Saloon Media, Gamester was a broadcast executive from 2005 to 2009, overseeing over 300 hours of programming for networks like History, National Geographic, Showcase, and Global Television.

Michael Kot, managing director at Saloon Media, said in a statement that Gamester is a “visionary with amazing instincts about what makes a good story combined with strong relationships within the creative community to get that story told.”

He added that he has been working with Gamester since Saloon Media first started and knows that “he is a valued expert that will help to grow our production presence.”

Saloon Media programs include Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer; Mysteries From Above; See No Evil; Drag Race Canada; Life Below Zero Canada; and Hoarders Canada.

Image courtesy of Saloon Media