M Media expands leadership team with appointments of Sarah Zammit and Ryan Dias

M Media the new IP based media business founded this summer by editor, showrunner, creator and executive producer Marlo Miazga, has announced its first two hires with Sarah Zammit appointed as VP of content and development and Ryan Dias as VP of operations. 

This strategic move strengthens M Media’s team as its first greenlit feature documentary, Ground Control, recently went into principal photography. The company is also preparing for expansion, with several projects in the late stages of development, some of which are to be announced shortly.

Sarah Zammit is an award-winning executive producer, showrunner, writer and director whose career spans acclaimed documentaries and more than150 hours of international factual television. She began her career as a producer under Allan King, Canada’s foremost cinema verité filmmaker. Her credits include Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, Hotel Paranormal with Dan Aykroyd, Fear Thy Neighbour, Mysteries from Above and CBC/Netflix’s Bollywed. Her work has earned recognition from Hot Docs, the DGC, Geminis, Canadian Screen Awards and Critics’ Choice.

Ryan Dias has nearly 20 years in Canadian film and television, with more than 40 credits as a line producer, production manager and production accountant. His work for multiple channels spans APTN, Crave, Netflix, Hallmark, Lifetime, Great American Family, T+E, Discovery Canada and TVOkids managing multi-million-dollar production budgets. 

Zammit and Dias rejoin their colleague Marlo Miazga having both worked on a range of projects for Miazga’s first independent production company Newroad Media, which was founded in 2011 by Miazga and award-winning director and producer Ann Marie Redmond. Newroad Media created high-profile factual television series and international co-productions, including Close Encounters, Curious and Unusual Deaths, shows which are still airing internationally today represented by Sphere Abacus. 

Marlo Miazga said: ‘This year has been seismic for us, securing a TV and theatrical greenlight for our first feature documentary, Ground Control, while also igniting a host of advanced development projects and exciting new partnerships. I’ve worked with both Sarah and Ryan extensively in the past, always hoping to bring them on board full-time. As freelancers, they were highly sought after, but now, their skills will cement and ensure the creation and delivery of our pipeline, both now and in the future. As colleagues, I couldn’t rate them more highly'

Last October Miazga announced a commission from Random House Canada, an imprint of Penguin-Random House to write Ground Control: Losing my child to suicide - the memoir that details the tragic story of losing her 14-year-old child, Mars to suicide in November of 2020 and its harrowing aftermath. Ground Control the feature documentary is financed by; Telefilm Canada’s Theatrical Documentary Program, Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) POV program and Rogers Documentary Fund and commissioned by CBC which has now gone into production.

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