Production Company Fancy Content Opens Its Doors

Fancy Content, Executive Producer Robert Wherry’s new production company, may have a name with flourishes, but its approach to the business is as straight as an arrow. 

The L.A.-based company (www.fancycontent.tv) opens with a roster that includes John Mastromonaco, the directing team known as Rad-Ish, the comedy expert Alex Grossman and the British director Rob Sanders. In making the move, Mastromonaco has shuttered Argyle Films, his long-running production company home. Rad-Ish joins from Assembly Films – where they worked with Wherry prior to his launching Fancy – while Grossman joins from HeLo. Sanders also joins Fancy from Argyle. 

To view the directors’ work, click here.

Wherry comes to Fancy Content from the aforementioned Assembly, where he was Partner and Executive Producer.  Prior to that he was Partner & EP at Go Film, which he co-founded in 2000 and left in 2010.  In launching Fancy, Wherry has relocated to the West Coast. He’s also establishing new relationships with talents like Mastromonico, Grossman and Sanders, while reuniting with the Rad-Ish team.  Comprised of Austrians Moritz Friedel and Christoph Chrudimak, Wherry introduced Rad-Ish to the US when he flew to Austria to recruit them for Go Film.

Being part of this new endeavor has energized Mastromonaco, a veteran filmmaker who started his career in his native Canada and is known for his work with comedy and dialogue scripts. “Robert’s got a great track record as an EP, and more importantly, he’s got a genuine passion for our business that you don’t see that often these days,” the director says. “As a production company owner, you need to know how to manage careers, build long-term relationships and stay relevant in a fast-changing business. And he’s got all of these skills.”

Wherry says the mantra at Fancy Content is to support creativity, content and clients. “We honestly believe in the power of creativity to connect with audiences, move hearts and blow minds,” he notes. “Our goal is to help brands tell their stories and produce advertising that’s compelling and effective, and we approach this task with the utmost respect for the agencies and clients we’re collaborating with and the directors, producers, artists and craftspeople we’re teaming with.”

Born in Bermuda, Wherry attended the University of Tennessee before moving to New York City to pursue a career in front of the camera.  He appeared in numerous daytime dramas (better known as soap operas) and TV commercials before moving into production, starting at the legendary UK and US-based production company BFCS. He later joined HKM and then co-founded Go Films.

During his years at GO he worked on a wide range of award-winning ad campaigns, culminating in the shop’s work on the 2008 launch of the explosive videogame title Halo 3. The campaign they produced won the Grand Prix at Cannes, along with winning honors from Clio, the AICP Show, D&AD and The One Show.

Over the years Wherry has teamed with a number of directors who’ve gone on to become well-known and lauded in the industry. The list includes talents like Mike Mills, Noam Murro, Roman Coppola, Simon McQuoid, Allan Van Rijn, Bob Brooks, Andrew Douglas, and Ivan Zacharias.  “You know you’ve done a good job as an EP when the directors with whom you’ve worked are more famous than you are,” Wherry quips.

This kind of behind-the-scenes success is not lost on someone like Mastromonaco. “A lot of EPs see their job as crunching numbers and making budgets work, but Robert’s approach is more strategic,” he says. “It’s not just about getting his directors work, but it extends to every aspect of the relationship with the agency and the client, from the treatments to the calls all the way through production. At each point along the way, Robert remains a consistently positive guy who’s a pleasure to be around. I find his passion contagious.”

Fancy Content is represented on the East Coast by Jared Shapiro of Moustache, in the Midwest by Gay Guthrey of Gay Guthrey & Associates and on the West Coast by Jeanie DiMaggio of DiMAGGIO.