‘PETE’S CHRISTMAS’
PRODUCTION BIOS
JASON NETTER (Executive Producer) - Jason Netter has 20 years of experience in the
entertainment industry and started his career working on the Emmy® winning live action and
ground breaking visual effects series “Babylon 5.” His interest in digital effects led to his starting
up the visual effects unit for the series in Season 3. That visual effects unit grew into a $30
million division within three years. Based on the success of the visual effects unit, Netter was
hired by the Chinese government in 1998 to build the first CGI production studio in Shanghai.
Kickstart Productions produced the live action film “Bounty Hunter” directed by Henry Saine,
Hallmark Channel’s Original Movie “Space Warriors” directed by Sean McNamara and
“Sweetwater” directed by Logan and Noah Miller.
In addition, Kickstart has produced several animated television projects including “SheZow” and
“Boneheads.”
Samples of other notable Kickstart projects include the feature summer blockbuster “Wanted”
via Universal, starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy. Feature
development of “Robotech” with Tobey Maguire, “The Red Star” with Joshua Trank (“The
Chronicle”) attached to direct, both at Warner Brothers and “The Preacher” written by John
August. Other television projects include “Painkiller Jane” for Syfy, “Wolverine & The X-Men,”
“Speed Racer” and “Voltron” for Nicktoons, “Happy Monster Band” for Disney Channel and
“Finley The Fire Engine” for Hallmark and BBC.
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JOHN SHEPHERD (Executive Producer) – John Shepherd founded Mpower Pictures, a film
production company with partners Stephen McEveety and Todd Burns in January 2007 and is
currently managing and developing the company’s production slate. Mpower Pictures is
dedicated to empowering both the artist and audience by telling stories that are compelling,
bold and uncompromising. Mpower’s first film, “Bella” premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film
Festival and won the People’s Choice Award. The following year McEveety produced “An
American Carol,” a documentary spoof written and directed by David Zucker with an all-star
cast including Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, James Woods and Jon Voight.
Shepherd also produced “The Stoning of Soraya M.” with stars Academy Award® nominated
actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel and Mozhan Marno which was released in the
summer of 2009. The company’s latest project is “Snowmen,” a live action family film featuring
Ray Liotta and Christopher Lloyd. This film was the Runner-Up Audience Award at Tribeca Film
Festival. Shepherd has extensive experience as a producer in the independent film sector and
as a studio executive.
Prior to joining Mpower, he was an executive at DreamWorks, where he worked in the New
Media department and Dean River Productions where he produced films such as “The Ultimate
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Gift” starring James Garner, Abigail Breslin and “Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius” starring Jim
Caviezel.
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NISHA GANATRA (Director) – Nisha Ganatra’s acclaimed debut feature, “Chutney Popcorn”
with Jill Hennessy, won Audience Awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, Newport Film
Festival, Paris International Film Festival and Madrid Film Festival and Best Feature Film Award
at the Outfest Los Angeles and San Francisco Gay and Lesbian film festivals.
Her sophomore feature, “Cosmopolitan,” starring Carol Kane and Roshan Seth, premiered at the
Southwest Film Festival and was selected by the Input as one of the top ten films shown on
public television. It was the only narrative film chosen for this distinction.
Ganatra directed “Cake” with Heather Graham, Sandra Oh, Taye Diggs, Cheryl Hines and Sarah
Chalke for Lionsgate Entertainment and First Look International Pictures. Ganatra’s work for
television includes Steven King’s “Haven” for Syfy, the movie “Fast Food High” starring Alison
Pill and she wrote “The Cheetah Girls: One World” for Disney. She recently completed
“Beholder” for the ITV/PBS series “Futurestates,” a modern day “Twilight Zone” series starring
Jessica Pare from “Mad Men,” Michael McMillian from “True Blood,” Rupak Ginn from “Royal
Pains,” Michael Mosley from “Scrubs” and Elaine Hendrix.
Her latest feature film is being produced by Laurence Mark Productions (“Julie and Julia” and
“Dreamgirls”). Ganatra has also been presented with Women In Film’s Original Vision Award,
the Max Factor Filmmaker Award and was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s Indie
Filmmakers to watch.
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PETER McKAY (Writer) - Peter McKay is a nationally-syndicated humor columnist with the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and with Creators Syndicate. He started his column about his wife,
kids, run down house and smelly dog in 2001 and in the years since has published more than
600 columns in papers across the country, gaining dozens of fans in the process. While
working as a humor columnist, McKay lived something of a double life, traveling around the
world as an officer and then independent contractor, with the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). For all those years, his official bio as a columnist was fake, listing his background as a
former Hollywood child star and saying he was now a prize-winning miniature horse
rancher. No one ever one noticed and McKay finally left the CIA in 2012 to focus on
screenwriting. McKay received his writing degree from Penn State University and his law
degree from Duquesne University.
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GREGG ROSSEN and BRIAN SAWYER (Writers) - Gregg Rossen and Brian Sawyer are
a comedy screenwriting team with projects in both film and television. In 2012 their TV movies
"Undercover Bridesmaid" and "The Seven Year Hitch" aired on Hallmark Channel and the duo
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also sold their kids' series "Home Turf" to Nickelodeon that year. In addition, their holiday
movie "The Christmas Consultant" starring David Hasselhoff premiered on Lifetime in December
2012. Their first feature sale was the comedy screenplay "Diesel Debutante" to New Line
Cinema, followed soon after by the sale of their comedy screenplay "Guida" to Revolution
Studios. They are also the creators of "Model Family," a short film starring Jamie Kennedy and
Cheryl Ladd, which was picked up by 20th Century Fox as the basis for a TV series. They served
as consulting producers on ABC's "Pixar's 20th Anniversary Special." Rossen and Sawyer each
received their Masters degrees from the University of Southern California's School of CinemaTV.
Sawyer grew up in Santa Barbara and attended U.C. Berkeley where he was co-editor of the
University’s 97-yr-old humor magazine, “The California Pelican.” His short film “Tex, the
Passive-Aggressive Gunslinger,” an offbeat comedy starring Bob Balaban, was picked up by the
Independent Film Channel where it played for several years. “Tex” has been well-received at
festivals and was an official selection at the Deauville Film Festival.
Rossen is from the San Francisco Bay Area and received his BA from U.C. Berkeley. While
working towards his MA at USC, he won the national Student Emmy Award for Best Comedy for
his short comedy film “The Grail Guy.” In addition, Rossen’s short film “The Revenge of the Red
Balloon” debuted at Slamdance and won several awards playing at other prominent festivals. He
has worked at the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in New York and for “Good Morning Britain” in
London.
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