Addie Morfoot ContributorThis Machine, the production company founded by veteran documentary director and producer R.J. Cutler, has bolstered its development and production team with four new hires.Cutler, the Emmy Award-winning director behind docus including “The September Issue,” “Belushi” and most recently with “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” launched This Machine in 2020 with an investment from Los Angeles-based Industrial Media.Cutler has named Sally Rosen Phillips as vice president, creative; Qadriyyah Shamsid-Deen as director, creative; Jim Czarnecki, senior vice president, production, and Ian Egos, vice president.
The four new hires bring This Machine’s employee headcount to 20. Phillips, Shamsid-Deen, Czarnecki and Egos join senior executives Elise Pearlstein, Trevor Smith, Margaret Yen and Katie Doering. “I’m thrilled to welcome Sally, Qadriyyah, Jim and Ian — four truly creative and passionate individuals — to our rapidly growing team at This Machine,” says Cutler, who served as a producer on Chris Hegedus and D.A.
Pennebaker’s seminal 1993 documentary “The War Room.” “Their talent, skills and interests perfectly complement our mission to tell compelling non-fiction stories that explore the times in which we live.”Phillips, an Emmy-Award winning news journalist, began working in non-scripted programming and development in 2016 at MG Original Content, where she helped produce and create distribution strategies around its podcast division and helped to develop “The Innocence Files” for Netflix.
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