COHORT 2 PARTICIPANT

I’m Maria Armstrong. I am an independent producer, director and CEO in the film and television industry. I started my career as a casting director over 30 years ago, building one of the largest casting companies in Canada. I then took the opportunity to become the Head of Talent and Executive Director of Talent Relations at the CBC, where I worked to develop programming to help elevate our Canadian talent pool.

After leaving the CBC and producing several television series, I went on to be the Director of Original Productions for the Corus based W Network. After eight years at Corus to decided it was time to take the leap and along with my business partner Catherine we founded Big Coat Media in 2000, we now have offices in Toronto, Vancouver and North Carolina.

We grew our business on many television projects however, one has grown to be a fairly popular television show “Love It or List It” seen on the HGTV in Canada and the US. The show has four versions in North America and is a global hit in over 158 territories and with spin off several countries with its own talent.

I have three sons, two granddaughters and four dogs and a cat, so my life is busy and fulfilling to say the least.