Jovanna Burke & Chelsea Hobbs launch new prod-co Grand Boulevard Entertainment

Veteran Actors-turned-creators Jovanna Burke (Supernatural) and Chelsea Hobbs (Lords of Dogtown) have partnered to launch Grand Boulevard Entertainment, a Vancouver-based production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in film and television. The duo officially launched the company at the Banff World Media Festival this week where they took projects in development and pre-production to the market including Puck Bunnies, a mockumentary about hockey moms, and The Sandwich Generation, a comedy about parenting. “As a woman of Hispanic descent and as a woman period, my personal experiences navigating an industry with limited roles for women like herself fuels our mission at Grand Boulevard to create authentic, diverse stories both in front of and behind the camera and make opportunities for other women creatives like ourselves,” says Burke. “This partnership marks an exciting new chapter for us, with this launch we are deepening our commitment to bold, inclusive storytelling through our work.

The power of presence, authenticity, and building spaces—both literal and metaphorical—where all stories belong is key to our mission,” continues Hobbs. The first project from Grand Boulevard is the Creative Sisterhood Podcast, which is launching this summer. The podcast spotlights female creatives who are reinventing themselves and forging their paths in film and television. Grand Boulevard has a yet-to-be announced series heading to camera this summer, as well as a scripted comedy, procedural drama and a scripted series for teens in active development.

Their short film Palindrome is currently on the festival circuit and screened at Inside Out in May.A part of their greater mission as leaders in the industry and community is to build a space for women and gender diverse people to feel safe, to create and carve out a place for themselves in a  historically male dominated industry. The Creative Sisterhood Podcast lends to this mission, as does their creative work, but they are also creating events and opportunities in the community to come together and connect with like-minded individuals, With their partnership with the Dine Wilder series in Vancouver (Dine with Storytellers): Chelsea and Jovanna will lead a conversation at a table of creatives, sharing stories and insights that reflect their mission to reimagine the power of storytelling—on screen and in real life. In May, they also participated in the How She Made This Panel; an inspiring event where successful women-identifying/transfem/gender diverse entrepreneurs share their practical insights on how to thrive as a creative entrepreneur.