Paper Route Studios opens in Toronto with doc and brand push
Four Canadian entertainment veterans have launched Paper Route Studios, a Toronto company focused on documentaries, branded work and production services.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Paper Route Studios has opened for business in Toronto, bringing together four Canadian entertainment industry veterans with credits across streaming docs, music, commercials and brand campaigns.
Deadline reported that Dave Harris, Corey Russell, Jamie MacKay and Blair Vermette are behind the new company, which quietly launched in June and is now operating.
The studio is being built around premium documentary films and series, commercials, brand campaigns, branded storytelling and full-service Canadian production for U.S. and international studios and producers, according to the report.
Paper Route also plans to offer third-party partners access to Canada’s federal and provincial tax credit systems, along with local crews and production support from development through delivery, Deadline reported.
Original projects are part of the plan
The founders said developing and producing original intellectual property will be a central part of the company’s business. Documentary projects are in development or production with CBC, ESPN and Hulu, according to Deadline.
The team’s members have also delivered programming to Prime Video, Netflix, Crave and NHL Original Productions, the report said. Their past work includes All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs for Prime Video and projects tied to music, sports and pop culture.
Deadline also reported that the team delivered The World Lives Here, a cinematic campaign for TSN connected to the FIFA World Cup, narrated by Kiefer Sutherland.
MacKay, Paper Route’s chief operating officer, said the company brings together decades of experience, relationships and craft under one roof, with the goal of telling stories that can travel internationally.
Russell, an executive producer at Paper Route, said documentary storytelling is changing quickly but that audiences still respond to stories that feel honest, specific and emotionally true. He said the company wants to work with ambitious filmmakers and partners who care about both substance and reach.
The team behind the new shop
Russell’s credits include Prime Video’s All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs, the Critics Choice Award-winning The Go-Go’s, which premiered at Sundance, the Canadian Screen Award-winning Rush: Time Stand Still, Killing Patient Zero, Hot Docs title Beautiful Scars and Blue Rodeo: Lost Together, according to Deadline.
He also helped launch GameTV and was head of programming for GolTV, described by Deadline as Canada’s first 24-hour football channel.
Harris has worked for more than 25 years across music, film and brand storytelling. Deadline reported that he worked in artist management at BMG and Sony Music with acts including Foo Fighters and John Mayer, then founded Shed Creative, a hybrid agency that ran campaigns for Samsung and Intel and made documentaries including Long Time Running and Shawn Mendes: In Wonder.
Shed was sold to Universal Music Group in 2022, after which Harris launched the music-focused production company 86 Media House, according to the report.
Vermette, Paper Route’s chief creative officer, is a director and creative with two decades in commercial and television production. Deadline reported that he has sold series to Ovation, co-founded the visual production studio Rabbithole and produced work for companies including Vice and SharkNinja.
Vermette said new production technologies create more ways to explore ideas, while creative judgment and craft remain needed to make work audiences remember.
MacKay has more than two decades of experience in founder and entrepreneurial roles and is focused on building the operational framework for creative ventures, Deadline reported.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.