Kelly Funke
Kelly Macmanus Funke is President of Littleton Road Productions, a television production company with an overall deal at Universal Content Productions (UCP).
Her career began in the 1990s, working for Cary Woods as he produced the first projects of today's most celebrated content creators, including Jon Favreau, Doug Liman, James Mangold, Alexander Payne, M. Night Shyamalan, and Scott Rosenberg.
Under her own company film generator, she was the associate producer on Jonas Pate's SHRINK and she championed the early works of author Gregg Hurwitz, Broadway and screenwriter Jon Hartmere, and television writer, Patrick Macmanus.
Then it all came to a halt.
In 2009, she said goodbye to Hollywood.
She spent the next decade in leadership positions in various industries. She served as Senior Vice President, Marketing for North America for the sportswear brand FILA. She was part of the global executive leadership team that returned the branded manufacturer from near-obsolescence in 2007 to a $5 billion dollar enterprise that won Shoe of the Year in 2018.
During her time away, she also shepherded the return of legendary brand ambassador Grant Hill to a lifetime deal; built an in-house ad agency from the ground up; and oversaw the creation and growth of the company's B2B and B2C eCommerce teams.
Immediately prior to her tenure at FILA, Funke was Director of Operations on a U.S. Senate primary in the '08 cycle and oversaw operations for Jamestown Associates, a nationally renowned political ad agency.
In the fall of 2019, her brother Patrick was inundated with projects for him and for the many talented writers he championed with his overall deal at UCP.
Naturally he called up Kelly. Naturally, she said yes.
Two years later, and they created the hit Peacock drama Dr. Death starring Joshua Jackson and are in the middle of production on the true-crime limited series The Girl From Plainville starring Elle Fanning.
Her story is just as remarkable as she is. Can’t wait for you to dive in and meet Kelly!
This week, we discuss:
Parallels between production and the writer’s process
Why producing is age agnostic
Having faith in yourself
Show Quotes:
“Producers have to recognize that you do have a completely fungible skill set. 100%. You just have to figure out how to frame it, and recognize that you are, in essence, a content creator, especially now."
“I always say this to our interns. Figure out what your skill set is first, don't figure out what your industry is first. it, and recognize that you are, in essence, a content creator, especially now."