Blue Ant Studios adds Aileen Gardner and Zachary Frank to executive team

Aileen Gardner and Zachary Frank

CONTENT CANADA: Blue Ant Studios, the production division of Canada-based Blue Ant Media, has appointed Aileen Gardner as head of production for Canada and Zachary Frank as VP of development.

Revealing the news at Content Canada, Blue Ant said Gardner will lead operations for the studio’s slate of productions in Canada, while Frank will work with the studio’s team in LA to further expand its development slate of limited and returnable series with an emphasis on the Canadian, UK and US markets.

Gardner has over 20 years’ experience in broadcast media production across the UK, US, and Canada in genres from one-off documentary to lifestyle series, with companies such as Mentorn, Endemol, Cineflix and Scott Brother’s Entertainment.

Since arriving in Canada she has overseen shows such as Nazi Hunters (Discovery), American Pickers (A&E) and the reboot of Brother vs Brother (HGTV). She was most recently a line producer at Banger Films in Toronto.

With over a decade of experience in development and production, Frank has worked with partners across Canada, the US and UK at companies including Cineflix and Entertainment One.

He was most recently senior director at Cream Productions, where he developed projects for networks including CNN (History of the Sitcom), Discovery ID (If I Should Die), Bell Networks (Fear thy Roommate), Corus (The World Without) and Travel Channel (A Ghost Ruined My Life).