WHAT WE DO
Established near Birmingham during Lockdown in the summer of 2020, Portopia Productions develops diverse and innovative content for film, TV and digital platforms designed to appeal to the widest possible audience. Entertaining and thought-provoking storytelling is at the heart of everything we do and is reflected in our slate of scripted projects and non-scripted documentaries and factual entertainment formats.
HOW WE WORK
Portopia Productions actively seek out existing and emerging talent, particularly from under-represented communities, to access, generate and develop ideas we feel will make compelling viewing across film, TV and digital platforms.
Our mission is to unearth stories and story tellers from all corners of society that would otherwise go untold and undiscovered.
WHO WE ARE
Kit de Waal is an award winning writer. Her debut novel My Name is Leon won the 2016 Irish Novel of the Year and is being adapted for the BBC. Other works include The Trick to Time (2018), Becoming Dinah (2019), Supporting Cast (2020). She crowdfunded Common People, an anthology of working class memoir by new and established writers. She has written for BBC Radio 4, The Old Vic and The Abbey Theatre, Dublin and co-wrote The Third Day for SKY/HBO/Plan B with Dean O’Loughlin and Dennis Kelly. She co-founded the Primadonna Festival in 2019 and in response to the Covid-19 crisis, she founded the Big Book Weekend, a free virtual literary festival which had an audience of 24,000. In 2019 she was named Future Book Person of the Year.
Sophie Morgan is an award-winning and BAFTA nominated film and TV producer who has worked in London, Los Angeles and Toronto as Head of Development for many of the UK and North America’s leading production companies including September Films (Bridezillas), World of Wonder (RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Cineflix (Wedding S.O.S.). As Commissioning Editor for Virgin Media, she commissioned and Exec Produced many of the channels’ highest-rating series including Britain’s Next Top Model, Ibiza – the channel’s first multi-media series - and Jade which followed the Big Brother star’s battle with terminal cancer. Sophie was also script editor for the Script Factory and has written two novels Motherlode and We Can Only Do Everything.
Dean O'Loughlin was second runner up on Channel 4's Big Brother 2 (Endemol UK) and was the first contestant to produce an account of his 63 days in the house.
Living In The Box was published in 2004 and received good reviews. 'A unique insight into the reality TV phenomenon.' - The Guardian.
In 2019 Dean co-wrote Dennis Kelly's The Third Day (SKY/HBO/Plan B) with Kelly and Kit de Waal.