Nora Keely Tapped as Head of Prod. for Paper Owl Belfast

Following the launch of its new Belfast studio, BAFTA-nominated indie producer Paper Owl Films has announced the appointment of a new Head of Production, Nora Keely, with support from the UK Global Screen Fund — financed by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport and administered by the BFI.

In her new role, Keely will oversee all productions at Paper Owl, strategically planning and managing the company’s slate of projects, leading the production team in line with exciting growth in both original IP and co-productions.

Keely is relocating to Northern Ireland from Toronto, binging with her 25-plus years of experience in animation and the arts. As an independent consultant, she has helped bring animated favorites including Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts, Blue’s Clues & You!, PAW Patrol, True & the Rainbow Kingdom and Oscar-nominated feature The Breadwinner to screens.

Previously, as SVP of Production for 9 Story Media, Keely had full oversight and leadership of all production at the Toronto studio. She earlier served as Director of Production at Guru Studio, working on many stop-motion and theatrical productions.

Founded in 2012 by Gráinne McGuinness, Stephen Petticrew and Gavin Halpin, Paper Owl Films is known for creating the animated series Pablo, a trailblazing preschool project for autism representation, and for the short Sol, which explores the experience of grief from a child’s point of view.

Paper Owl is currently in production on Pablo: Boy Meets School, a spin off of its pioneering series aimed at kids 5-8 for BBC Children’s, Crayola Studios and RTÉJr, in partnership with CAKE, and on preschool animated series Nikhil & Jay with King Banana and CAKE for CBeebies. The studio’s Celtic-inspired kids anime series Lí Ban for Cúla4/TG4 in Ireland and S4C in Wales has recently started airing, with 52 further episodes in development.

“It is an exciting time of renewed energy and expansion at Paper Owl Films following the opening of our new studio,” said Halpin, the studio’s Managing Director. “We are so grateful for the support of the UK Global Screen Fund International Business Development Award which has enabled us to appoint such an experienced Head of Production and to Northern Ireland Screen with whose visionary support in production, development and talent management has been so key to our growth.”