Canadian producers Michelle Mama and Bill Taylor team to form Gay Agenda 

Michelle Mama (left) and Bill Taylor are teaming up to launch Gay Agenda

Veteran Canadian producers Michelle Mama and Bill Taylor are teaming up to launch a new Toronto-based production outfit, Gay Agenda, with a focus on amplifying a new generation of queer storytellers.

The company is launching with a slate of projects in various stages of development and production, including a documentary on the life of British-born, Canadian singer-songwriter Carole Pope.

The project, titled AntiDiva: The Confessions of Carole Pope, chronicles the career and current life of the “queer maverick,” now 78, who challenged mainstream notions about sex and sexuality with her band Rough Trade.

Scheduled to premiere on CBC’s Documentary Channel in 2025, the project is produced by Mama, Taylor and Allison Grace of Fall From Grace Productions. Mama also serves as writer and director.

The project received financial support from the Canada Media Fund’s POV Program, the Ontario Creates Film Fund, the Hot Docs-Slaight Family Fund and the Rogers Documentary Fund.

Mama has worked in factual and documentary for the past two decades and has credits on projects including feature film Summer Qamp, season three of Canada’s Drag Race and trans makeover series Shine True.

Taylor started his career as a writer and director, with credits including on the feature film Don’t Get Killed in Alaska, before moving into TV production.

Other projects on Gay Agenda’s development slate include That’s Just Super (8×30’), a queer superhero series created by Julianna Notten (Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls) with veteran writer Anthony Q. Farrell (The Office, Shelved) attached as co-showrunner; docuseries Queer Elders (6×30’) directed by Maya Bastian (Farm Crime, Tigress); and adult animated series Daygamers (8×30’) created by Lester Trips (Content Farm).

The company is also developing comedy series My Fabulous Gay Orgasm (6×30’), created by Scott Jones, and a comedy web series titled Change Your Life Forever in 60 Days (6×16’), created and produced by Ink Cap Productions.

“We’re passionate about empowering talented queer creatives who have been misunderstood by the mainstream, and about depicting representations of queer people not in peril, grief, or living through tragedy – we’re in the business of creating and sharing queer joy,” said Mama.

Taylor added: “Forming Gay Agenda at a time when the world feels increasingly divisive, it’s important for us to tell our own stories that foster empathy, build bridges, and celebrate forgiveness and redemption.”