About Media Foundry
Media Foundry aims to be the de-facto platform for Entertainment Creatives across all verticals, allowing them to build and take their projects to market while retaining creative control and company independence. The Media Foundry platform is a recent addition to the Talenthouse AG family.
Talenthouse AG is a technology platform company, working with the world’s largest creative community of over 14.7 million members, to produce the highest quality digital content for many of the largest companies globally. To learn more about Talenthouse and our constellation of creativity head over to weare.talenthouse.com.
Meet the Team
Media Foundry’s core team is made up of experts from across the games and film & TV industries. The project is the brainchild of games industry veteran Mike Gamble who, after a decade at Epic leading their EMEA Unreal Engine business, left to build Media Foundry and is heading up its execution and delivery - at a time when the industry has never needed it more. We’ve also teamed up with Goldfinch who share our values and have developed an impressive approach for indie film & TV creatives.
Games
An industry veteran of over three decades, Mike has held senior positions at Sega, Microsoft, THQ, and Epic - alongside entrepreneurial stints with the likes of MathEngine, Instinct Technology, and others. Mike’s passion has always been focused on supporting independent developers and newcomers to the dev scene looking to make their mark - helping people to develop the games they want to. This very passion led to the idea for Media Foundry: with Mike’s experience as Head of Engine Licensing in the EMEA region at Epic, he saw many indie developers forced into suboptimal deals thanks to a lack of experience, or a dearth of specific skills and resources - or even their games disappear altogether through no fault of their own.
With over 20 years of experience in frontline video game development and publishing, Michael has seen stints at the likes of 2000AD, Marvel, Sega, Square-Enix, Epic, and various other companies. His extensive work in business development and sales has seen multiple projects built over the years using both original and licensed intellectual property. Comic books, TV, film - it’s all been ticked off at one point or another, with titles like Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham, Aliens, Akira, Tomb Raider 2, Deus Ex, 300, Star Trek, Life Is Strange mobile, and many more filling Michael’s resume.
Erla brings over two decades of experience in technology roles and innovation to Media Foundry. She is a strong believer in human potential, breaking down barriers, and pursuing continuous learning. Beginning her career in FinTech in Iceland in 1999, Erla’s passion for new technology and learning led her to the games industry by 2008. From there, she went on a journey to establish Iceland's first games industry organisation where she served as chair. Erla also participated in an export-support scheme for the Nordic gaming industry, led key business development and account management initiatives for the EMEA region with Crytek's CryEngine, and worked with Polystream to build its streaming platform.
Roberta’s six-plus years of experience stretch across digital communication and production management, in Italy and internationally. Roberta's work has seen her connecting and managing clients and creatives in the content production field; combining the marketing needs of clients with the imagination and skill of creators to provide valuable, unique digital content. With strong organisational and creative skills under her belt alongside a dedicated, problem-solving attitude, Roberta has worked with clients such as Danone, Nestlé, Unicredit, Barilla, and Bending Spoons. Outside of work she is a keen video games player, which led her to taking the opportunity to enter the games industry with Media Foundry.
Ian is an experienced writer, editor, researcher, video maker, voice over artist, and PR. His career has been in the gaming industry for over 12 years, taking on roles at various gaming magazines. Most recently at Wireframe, the Raspberry Pi-published magazine, as features editor. He has also worked with or for The Guardian, Edge, Play, GamesTM, Red Bull, Square-Enix, Kotaku, Variety, Eurogamer, RockPaperShotgun, BT.com, Techland, Vice, Digital Spy, MCV, Rebellion Developments, GI.biz, Deep Silver, the Press Association, and many more.
Film & TV
Phil’s strength lies in negotiating and constructing deals at both a corporate (Epic Games, Talenthouse, Creative England, ITV) and production level (credited on 48 titles) as well as developing new revenue streams and exploiting opportunities for partnerships. He always has an eye on future trends and recently moved into web3, launching the crypto and NFT crowdfunding platform, FF3. Prior to joining Goldfinch, Phil worked in marketing, strategy and operations across a variety of sectors, including hospitality, food and drink, professional services and entertainment. He can build brands and businesses from the ground up and has a knack for spotting opportunities for innovation, development and partnership. List of film/TV credits and experience: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9631982/
The founder and driving force behind Goldfinch, Kirsty is that rarity of being both a qualified lawyer and accountant. Passionate about independent film and well aware of the financial difficulties that producers face, she founded Goldfinch with the aim of helping independent filmmakers. Since then, Goldfinch has enabled multiple film and TV projects and has assisted over 12 first-time directors to fly. In 2020, Kirsty made her directorial debut with A Bird Flew In - the first UK film to start shooting since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The Capri Hollywood Film Festival awarded her BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR and the film was nominated for BEST UK FEATURE FILM at Raindance 2021 and BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE at Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival 2021. In 2021 Kirsty also produced the feature documentary Quant which opened in competition at BFI London Film Festival and Father of Flies which opened at Raindance 2021 and is being released internationally in 2022. List of film/TV credits and experience: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4050693/
One of the original members of the Goldfinch team, Sarah helps manage the day to day running of the Goldfinch group of companies. She deals with all incoming productions as well as managing relationships with investors and producers. Additionally, Sarah runs Goldfinch’s incubator programme for emerging filmmakers First Flights, ensuring Goldfinch meets and builds strong relationships with the next generation of content creators. For the last two years, Sarah has worked with the team at the British Urban Film Festival as one of their Best Script judging panel. Building on her passion for helping to promote diversity in film / TV, Sarah has been selected as a #Startwith8 UK 2022 mentor where she will provide bespoke one-on-one advice to help further their projects & careers.
Tom started in the thick of the industry as an accountant on the Wes Anderson film ‘Isle of Dogs’. His interest in the commercial side of Entertainment led him to Ingenious, at a time one of Europe’s most successful Film Financiers, deploying over $10bn into films since 1998. As an investment professional he has been responsible, in some part, for the execution of over 30 investments across both Film and Television projects, totalling over $200m. Tom also has experience in M&A within a larger media conglomerate.
Ben Charles Edwards is a British Producer, Writer and Director. Upon the release of Edwards' feature debut ‘Set The Thames on Fire’, the BFI remarked that "Charles Edwards’ has crafted distinctive, admirable work that seems to have emerged from the unseen margins of British cinema.” Ben heads up production at Goldfinch and is currently in the process of building an elevated and comprehensive genre slate under the sister company The Number 44. List of film/TV credits and experience: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3107950/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Nick Sadler is the founder of First Flights Media Ltd, the film development program for Goldfinch. Nick worked on bringing independent feature films to UK theatres such as Pandorica, Redwood, Dark Beacon and Iron Sky: Coming Race. Every Film Label release has been written, produced, edited and bought to the big screen in under 12 months. The films have been selected for and won awards at festivals such as Frightfest, American Horror Film Festival and New York Film Festival. He is also Executive Producer across all films produced through the First Flights Short Film Fund. Through his Short Film Fund he has executive produced over 9 short films in 18 months, including award winning ‘The Impatient Man’ and BFI shortlisted ‘An Irish Goodbye’.