About

Maggie (she/her) is the Production Coordinator at Little Engine Moving Pictures. She is responsible for the day-to-day planning of projects in development and production, which extends to managing the majority of Little Engine's social media branches.

They are a graduate of Humber College’s Film and Television Production program where she wrote and produced her first short documentary “Life on the Fast Track” (2021). It was selected to several film festivals across the world including New York Flash Film Festival, Lake View International Film Festival, and Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival and earned them the title of Best Short Producer at the Nashville Independent Filmmakers Festival. Aside from producing, Maggie is passionate about assistant directing and has been the 1st AD on several short films.

Maria Kennedy (she/her) is the owner, executive producer, and co-founder of Little Engine Moving Pictures, overseeing all business aspects of Little Engine’s creative properties, including the company’s development, production, and distribution divisions. Since 2014, she has secured almost 10 million dollars in Canadian financing for developing and producing Little Engine’s series and digital content. 

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Under Maria’s direction, Little Engine’s new distribution division rapidly expanded to encompass a premium in-house and third-party title library. Maria has built and maintains strong partnerships with Canadian broadcasters CBC, TVO, TFO, Knowledge Television, Société Radio-Canada, SuperChannel, and OMNI, as well as national funding agencies Canada Media Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, Rogers Telefund, Ontario Creates Bell Fund and COGECO Fund. She has produced TV series, feature films, commercials, branded content, and companion interactive websites and games. Her debut series, Now You Know, was licensed to over 100 territories worldwide. 

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She is a recipient of the BANFF Spark Program, the National Screen Institute Feature Film Program, the Canadian Creative Accelerator, and the CFC Canadian Film Centre Fifth Wave Initiative. Maria is a Youth Media Alliance board member who fosters mentorship for emerging gender and culturally diverse creators and producers. A strong advocate of gender, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ equity in the workplace, Maria encourages creators, animators, newcomers, and media industry veterans to say hello.

Ben Mazzotta (he/him) is an executive producer and the creative force behind Little Engine Moving Pictures. Since the company's inception in 2008, he has created, written, directed, and executive produced 6 TV series, 3 interactive websites, 24 digital games, 3 feature films, and over 20 documentaries, including Cutie Pugs, Cutie Pugs ABC, Now You Know, The Picco Incident, Canada Crew, Yard Rescuers, Diverse City, and The Limits. His debut kids' series, Now You Know, sold in over 100 territories worldwide. 

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In 2019, Cutie Pugs won a Kidscreen, Youth Media Alliance, and W3 Interactive Award. His first self-funded feature film, The Limits, won Best Canadian Drama at Reelworld and was sold to Super Channel for almost four times its production budget. Ben is a BANFF and Prix Jeunesse-nominated writer and director, equally adept at animating, visual effects, and storyboarding, with over 300 episode and documentary credits. Ben has directed digital series and ad campaigns for companies like Walmart, 3M, Instagram, Xbox, the Royal Bank of Canada, Teletoon, General Electric, MinuteMaid, and Neilson Canada. In his third year of Ryerson Film School, he co-produced, DOP'd, and edited the short film Use Once and Destroy, which won Best Short Film at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale International Film Festival.

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Char Pauli (they/them) is a queer, German-Canadian business affairs and production accounting professional. Budgets and funding applications are their jam. Char heads Little Engine Moving Pictures’ business affairs department, where they lead a small team working on funding applications and all kinds of contracts, liaise with broadcasting partners, creatives, crew and funders, and act as the production manager on several TV series in development and production. When they aren’t busy keeping the Little Engine running smoothly, they freelance as a business affairs consultant and production accountant for several companies. Being part of an underserved community in the TV industry, they are passionate about representation, and focus on supporting indie producers from diverse communities.

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During their career, Char has successfully applied for development and production funding from the Canada Media Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, Ontario Creates, COGECO, Bell Fund and the Canada Trade Commissioner Service, as well as provincial and federal tax credits. When not nose deep in their favourite spreadsheets or raving about the beauty of conditional formatting, they also have an affinity for contract language and will happily draw up any agreements that might be needed.

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In their free time, Char loves crocheting and being bossed around by their calico cat Jem or Rottweiler mix Momo.

Tania Gonçalves (she/her) is the project manager at Little Engine Moving Pictures. She is responsible for the day-to-day planning of original and service projects in development and production, which extends to managing the majority of Little Engine's social media branches.

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In 2023, Tania managed the service production of the service production of Sago Mini School "Circle Time", which involved the casting and management of over 20 child performers. Her journey in the media industry began as a student producer at Toronto's Humber College Film & Television Production program, where she produced multiple short films, "Come Back" (2022) and "Love After Life" (2023), and two PSAs, including one for Dyslexia Canada. Tania is currently in the festival circuit with her directorial debut, "The Fabricated Falsehood of Mr. Lankly's Tall Tales" (2023), shot entirely on a virtual production stage.

Maggie (she/her) is the Production Coordinator at Little Engine Moving Pictures. She is responsible for the day-to-day planning of projects in development and production, which extends to managing the majority of Little Engine's social media branches.

They are a graduate of Humber College’s Film and Television Production program where she wrote and produced her first short documentary “Life on the Fast Track” (2021). It was selected to several film festivals across the world including New York Flash Film Festival, Lake View International Film Festival, and Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival and earned them the title of Best Short Producer at the Nashville Independent Filmmakers Festival. Aside from producing, Maggie is passionate about assistant directing and has been the 1st AD on several short films.

Tope Babalola (he/him) is the creative executive at Little Engine Moving Pictures. He leads the development of new IP, series, and optioned projects. He is also the creator, writer, director, and co-executive producer of Benjamin Ojo, a tween mystery series in development with Little Engine.

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Before joining Little Engine, the Nigerian-Canadian filmmaker and content creator combined his multiple skillsets in comedic writing, directing, editing, performance, and visual effects to amass over 2.1 million followers on his TikTok account, which continues to grow with tens of millions of monthly views across his videos. Tope graduated from Sheridan College’s Advanced Television and Film Program, where he produced several short films, including the short documentary They Can’t. So I Must (2022), which won the Best Student Short Film award at its London, UK, premiere at the Kingston International Film Festival.

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Nicole has been in the business of making television for over 20 years, many of which were spent in the kidsphere creating, producing and directing entertaining and educational multi-screen content for Kids’ broadcasters. In recent years, she has been providing her business expertise to independent documentary and factual programming producers in the roles of line-producer and business affairs manager.