International production company Story House Media Group is opening an office in Toronto to develop and produce non-fiction and fiction programming, documentaries and factual entertainment for the North American market.
The Canadian headquarters will be overseen by former truTV SVP of original programming Robyn Hutt and former Red Apple Entertainment president Rachel Low. Hutt will serve as president and Low will serve as general manager for the Toronto outpost of the company, which also has offices in Washington D.C., Berlin, Munich and Halifax.
“Robyn has an amazing track record, having been instrumental in building a top cable network in the U.S.,” CEO Carsten Oblaender said in a statement. “Rachel is the perfect complement with her expertise in the Canadian marketplace and history of creating hit lifestyle and provocative documentary programming.”
The company is working on a cross-border series with U.S. cable network Discovery ID and OWN Canada, as well as a glossy documentary special for Canadian pubcaster CBC.
While at truTV, Hutt oversaw all content for the network, including Hardcore Pawn, Storage Hunters, Operation Repo and Lizard Lick Towing. Before that she worked as VP and SVP for current programming and specials at Court TV.
Low comes from a non-fiction filmmaking background, having served as VP of Toronto-based prodco Shaftesbury’s factual entertainment division prior to coming to Story House. Her credits include From Spain with Love for Food Network and Cooking Channel, Who’s Sorry Now? for CBC and Why Men Cheat for CBC and U.S. cable net Logo. She will continue to serve as executive producer on a number of doc projects for Shaftesbury. As president of Toronto-based Red Apple Entertainment, she oversaw the development and production of programming for networks including Biography, CBC, History, Court TV and Discovery Times.