Sphere Media, a leader in the creation, adaptation, production and distribution of television and film in Canada has announced a new talent coup through a new partnership with Kids In The Hall, SNL and Superstore regular Mark McKinney.
The development deal sees McKinney partnering to develop, star and exec produce his first ever unscripted series. The deal was brokered by Kim Bondi who joined the company a year ago in the position of Senior Vice-President of Development to spearhead Sphere’s development strategy and oversee its ambitious production slate.
The series will be exec produced by Bondi, Sphere Media President and CEO Bruno Dubé and President, Unscripted Marlo Miazga along with comedy writer and producer Rob Sheridan (2 Broke Girls, Corner Gas, The Red Green Show) and McKinney. The as-yet-untitled project is an unscripted comedy doc series that will see McKinney travelling the world to meet ordinary people doing very extraordinary things.
As a founding member of the legendary Kids in the Hall, McKinney is one of Canada’s most celebrated comedians and more recently, he has won over the hearts of Generation Z with his portrayal of Glenn Sturgis, the kind but confused store manager in NBC’s comedy hit, Superstore.
McKinney said: ‘I’m thrilled to be working with Kim Bondi and Sphere on my first docu series. When they asked me to head out into the world without a script, I’m so glad I remembered the first rule of improvisation and screamed “YES!”
Bondi said: ‘I was brought in to explore areas we hadn’t yet produced in so we’re especially pumped about this collaboration. It’s the first time Mark has done an unscripted project like this and of course we’re thrilled that it’s with Sphere. This first talent deal with a comedy legend is an incredible springboard into building out our unscripted comedy slate, you simply couldn’t get a more perfect headliner. With Rob Sheridan on the project and having access to both of their lovely comedy brains, we’re ready to work on some magic together, and of course it’s a huge buzz.’
Sphere Media’s profile recently received a major boost with its scripted period series set in the ‘20s, The Porter receiving 19 nominations and coming of age story of a fluid millennial Sort Of racking up 15 for the Canadian Screen Awards to be held in April. The Porter was also nominated in the best new series category at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
