Catalyst, Blue Ant begin co-production on second series
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Editor
| 12 October 2022
Furthering its ambition to become the de facto destination for women content creators, Toronto-based development and funding company Catalyst has announced that its latest commission for a new female-lead unscripted comedy series, the untitled Carolyn Taylor project, is currently in production.
Carolyn Taylor Headshot 12Oct2022
Canadian actor and comedian Carolyn Taylor (pictured) is best known as the star and co-creator of CBC’s comedy hit Baroness von Sketch Show. The new series plays out at the intersection of amateur ability and enormous ambition — in this case, inspired by Katerina Witt and the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Taylor’s unlikely quest to choreograph the perfect pairs figure-skating routine to be performed in front of an audience of skating stars and fans. What begins as a light-hearted challenge soon morphs into a real-life mission.

Despite having zero figure-skating knowledge or skill, Taylor manages to convince an A-list cast of skaters to help her achieve her dream, including two-time Olympic Gold Medallist Ekaterina Gordeeva, Olympic Gold Medallist David Pelletier, four-time World Champion Kurt Browning, two-time Olympic Silver Medallist Brian Orser, World Champions Barbara Underhill & Paul Martini, Olympic Silver Medallist Elizabeth Manley, World Silver Medallists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, US Champion Adam Rippon and social media skating celeb Elladj Baldé. Taylor is aided and abetted on her figure-skating journey by BAFTA-winning actor and comedian Mae Martin (Feel Good) and Emmy-winning figure skating choreographer Sandra Bezic (Battle of the Blades).

The series was commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave and produced by Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios as part of their strategic partnership to develop female-generated programming for the global marketplace. The new series was produced by Catalyst with Blue Ant Studios, with which Catalyst has a non-scripted co-production joint venture, and supported by Rogers Cable Fund and Bell Fund. The unscripted comedy series is created by Taylor, co-directed by Taylor and Zack Russell, and exec produced by Taylor, Russell. Serving as executive producers are Catalyst’s Vibika Bianchi and Julie Bristow and Blue Ant Studios’ Laura Michalchyshyn, Aileen Gardner and Sam Sniderman.

The series is slated to premiere on Crave in 2023. Blue Ant International is seeing oversees worldwide distribution.

Catalyst, formerly the Content Catalyst Fund (CCF), recently rebranded and expanded to sharpen its focus on enabling and empowering female content creators, and attracting more women into non-scripted television. Earlier this year, the first commission to come from Catalyst and Blue Ant Media’s non-scripted co-production joint venture was Mission: Unexplained for T+E in Canada.

Commenting on the new production, Catalyst founder Julie Bristow said: “Carolyn’s latest comedy offering hits all the notes for Catalyst, not least that we all need more reasons to laugh in our complicated and troubled world. But it also demonstrates that Catalyst’s raison d’être — to give female-generated unscripted projects the very best start in life — is not just a worthy mission but a sound commercial proposition. Carolyn proves that believing in yourself and following your dreams can lead to remarkable things. And luckily for us all, figure skating is only one of Carolyn’s dreams. Turns out she has lots of them for future seasons.”