Producer Profiles

  • Xan Aranda

    Posted by · October 23, 2020 11:36 AM

    Emmy nominee Xan Aranda is an award-winning director, producer, and consultant with projects ranging from fiction and documentary film and TV to branded content, commercials, and music videos. Xan’s Emmy nomination was alongside Jill Soloway for Transparent’s This is Me, a collection of short films for which she served as Producer and Co-Executive Producer. With Mark and Jay Duplass, Xan developed and serves as an Executive Producer of HBO’s Room 104. She also produced Blue Jay with Mel Eslyn, starring Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. After its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and Lincoln Center, Xan’s directorial debut Andrew Bird: Fever Year screened in over 90 festivals and took home nine awards. Her clients have included Focus Features, Amazon, Epitaph Records, Starbucks, the U.S. Department of Education, and a wide variety of acclaimed independent content creators.

  • Jaime Davila

    Posted by · October 22, 2020 11:36 AM

    Jaime Dávila is President of Campanario Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company that develops content driven by Latinos in front of and behind the camera. Since co-founding the company in 2013, Dávila oversees the day-to-day operations and manages the scripted, unscripted and digital content teams. Additional projects include Campanario Entertainment’s first production Camelia la Texana, a scripted Spanish-language telenovela that aired on Telemundo and Netflix Mexico. Previously a development executive at Bravo, Dávila specialized in creating original series and adapting international formats. He spearheaded the development and green light of many hit shows, including Best New Restaurant, a food competition series starring Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio, and The People’s Couch. Dávila received a Master of Science degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. Dávila is the executive producer of the forthcoming Selena: The Series at Netflix.

  • Deborah Calla

    Posted by · October 21, 2020 8:36 AM

    Deborah Calla, born and raised in Brazil, is a writer, producer, speaker, and activist. Among her film credits are: A Beautiful Life (writer/producer), Beat The World (producer).TV: Carnival in Rio (Travel Channel, producer), Chicano Artists (HBO Latino, producer), Fox Club Kids (Fox Latin America, producer). Deborah is an advisory board member of the Geena Davis Institute and a member of the WGA. She is also the chair of the Media Access Awards, a yearly awards event started by Norman Lear which celebrates people in the industry who advance the portrayal and employment of people with disabilities. Deborah is a regular guest speaker at AFI, USC, Globo Network, among others. She also works as a script consultant and travels to such countries as Taiwan, Jordan, and Brazil to teach script development and production.

  • Rodo Sayagues

    Posted by · October 18, 2020 8:37 AM

    Rodo Sayagues was born the 20th of February 1980 in Montevideo, Uruguay where he grew up. His father, a prominent lawyer, and his mother, an English teacher, were devoted art and culture consumers— inspiring their children to appreciate a variety of art forms, from classical literature and music to theatre and films.

    At an early age, Sayagues developed a passion for cinema and music. First, growing musical abilities, he studied classical guitar and eventually modern music. He founded several rock bands with which he played until early adulthood, achieving a career in the local Uruguayan music scene. Music forged his friendship with his long-time creative partner, Fede Alvarez. Soon, they discovered a shared interest beyond music and began shooting homemade short films with a simple VHS camera.

    Sayagues’s two passions eventually mixed, and he started shooting music videos for local rock bands, and in time, for more prominent Uruguayan musicians. Filming, which had been a hobby, gained real estate in his creative life. By 2007, Sayagues was directing commercials in the Uruguayan market, receiving several awards. Simultaneously, he and Alvarez were making more short films for which they won many awards, both locally and abroad.

    After graduating film school, he and Alvarez started pursuing their lifetime dream: making a real movie. They wrote a script called “CORNED BEEF,” which earned them a scholarship at the BINGER INSTITUTE in Amsterdam, Netherlands. There, they improved their script and attended screenwriting master classes. The script went on to THE ROTTERDAM, BERLINALE and MAR DEL PLATA film festivals, allowing Alvarez and Sayagues to further hone their writing and storytelling skill sets. It was during this time, the idea for the short film “PANIC ATTACK” was born.

    In November 2009, “PANIC ATTACK” was uploaded to YouTube and in a matter of days went viral. The short caught the attention of acclaimed filmmaker SAM RAIMI, who offered Sayagues and Alvarez a deal. After relocating to Los Angeles, they began working on a re-imagining of the cult horror classic, “THE EVIL DEAD.” The movie premiered at the SXSW Festival with horror critic acclaim and became a box office success scoring $100 million worldwide. Since the release of “THE EVIL DEAD,” Sayagues and Alvarez have continued developing high-priority, feature films with staple Hollywood studios including Sony, Universal, and MRC.

    The duo quickly embarked on their next feature ”DON”T BREATHE” through Sony pictures, which went on to become a huge success both at a critics level and at the box office, raising 90 Million dollars domestic and 160 million worldwide. The film went on to win several awards, including the SATURN AWARD for Best Horror Movie in 2016. Rodo Sayagues continued working Along Fede Alvarez on the upcoming SONY release THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER WEB. A new installment on the GIRL WITH DRAGON TATTOO saga. In 2017, Rodo Sayagues and Fede Alvarez created BAD HOMBRE, a production company focused on producing high octane genre movies. Rodo Sayagues is also a dedicated musician, playing drums and guitar. He also teaches a screenwriting workshop once a year in South America and Europe.