Guest Industry Expert — All Access 2021:

Jennifer Beasley

Head of Development, Buffalo Gal Pictures

A WGC-nominated writer with comedy and drama television as well as web-based screenwriting credits to her name, Jen has been active in the film communities in both Toronto and Winnipeg for two decades. Following a seven-year stint as an assistant cameraperson with various film and television productions and before that as both an elementary and high school teacher, Jen segued into the television story department, beginning with the Showcase comedy series Billable Hours. Upon graduating from the Canadian Film Centre’s Prime Time Television Program in 2009, Jen was hired as Story Coordinator on the award-winning HBO Canada series Less Than Kind, studying comedy from no less than The Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney. Her co-written script for the finale of the second season was nominated for a 2011 Writers Guild of Canada Comedy Writing Award. Subsequent work included screenwriting credits on such television series as Showcase’s Crash & Burn and CBC’s Men With Brooms as well as story editing on a number of Toronto-based projects in development.

As a Production Executive at Winnipeg-based production company Buffalo Gal Pictures, Jen was integral to both the development and production divisions and is adept at shepherding a project from the initial stages through financing to delivery. Her credits include Supervising Producer on the feature A Very Sordid Wedding and Production Executive on the features Siberia and JT Leroy.

In the fall of 2017, Jen was named Buffalo Gal Pictures' Head of Development, and currently oversees the company's diverse feature and television slate.