Paul Donovan - Managing Director and Producer
Paul has produced some of the most successful Irish TV comedy of recent years including International Emmy Award winner Moone Boy starring Chris O’Dowd, a Baby Cow co-production for Sky; Monte Carlo TV Festival nominated Trivia; Val Falvey, TD; and Stew, winner of both IFTA and Celtic Film and Television awards.
In addition, Paul has produced feature films Wide Open Spaces (2008, World Sales E1) starring Ewen Bremner and Ardal O’Hanlon; Dead Long Enough (2005), starring Michael Sheen); Mapmaker (2001, ZDF/ARTE); and The Last Bus Home (1996, Beyond Films).
Paul is currently in production with 4 Kids and It, a family adventure feature film starring Academy Award-winner Michael Caine, Paula Patton, Matthew Goode, and Russell Brand, based on the best-selling children’s novel by Jacqueline Wilson. Next up is The Last Right, a feature film co-financed by eOne; Sham, a feature film to be directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) and co-produced by Baby Cow; Dead Still, a 6 part TV series written by John Morton for Acorn, RTÉ and ZDFE; and Lovely Trouble, starring Tommy Tiernan.
Paul was exec-producer on recent Deadpan productions such as Halal Daddy, an Irish culture clash comedy released in 2017; Alison Spittle’s comedy series Nowhere Fast, which aired to critical acclaim in late 2017 and is being sold internationally by BBC Worldwide; two seasons of Can’t Cope Won’t Cope which broadcast on RTÉ in 2016 & 2018 and sold to Netflix worldwide and two seasons of Hardy Bucks for RTÉ. Most recently Deadpan are involved in Sharon Horgan’s new project Women on the Verge for UKTV and RTÉ. Deadpan Pictures are also currently developing TV comedy-drama projects through their First Look deal with Kew Media and also with BBC WW.
Paul founded Grand Pictures with Michael Garland in 2000 and exec-produced Paths to Freedom, Fergus’s Wedding, Spin the Bottle, Puffball, Death of a Superhero and Legend of Longwood. He rebranded his wing of the company to Deadpan Pictures in 2014 when producer Ailish McElmeel joined him as company director.
Paul is a graduate of ACE, EAVE, ARISTA and Screen Leaders, and currently on the Board of Screen Producers Ireland and Pinewood Productions Ireland.
