Allison Shigo
Engel Entertainment
ALLISON SHIGO - bio brief
Allison co-produced the award-winning film, A Walk to Beautiful, winner of the International Documentary Association award for Best Feature Documentary 2007 and nominated for an Emmy Award. A Walk to Beautiful screened at over 25 film festivals worldwide, won several audience choice awards, and was theatrically released in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Allison spearheaded the film’s development, fundraising and continues to lead the film’s publicity and outreach efforts. She produced Three Years Later an update on characters featured in A Walk to Beautiful and Child Cry Colombia and Philippines about the work of feeding programs sponsored by the Times Square Church.
She is currently producing a fundraising reel for World Aid. Allison was the associate producer of Women, Power and Politics for PBS “NOW” which aired in 2008.
Allison joined Engel Entertainment in 2003 after working in development at Revolution Studios. Previously, Allison served as Director of Development at Chicagofilms, Bob Balaban's New York-based production company, where she worked on the Academy Award winning film Gosford Park.
Current/Recent Productions:
WORLD AID NEW YORK – PRODUCER: A fundraising reel that follows the international humanitarian work of World Aid.
A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL – CO-PRODUCER: A feature-length documentary for festival distribution and broadcast on PBS’s NOVA focusing on The Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the young women there suffering from a devastating childbirth injury. Winner of the 2007 International Documentary Association Award for Best Feature Documentary and nominated for an Emmy Award. (Airdate: Spring 2008) |MORE
FISTULA WORLDWIDE: A HIDDEN EPIDEMIC – CO-PRODUCER/CREATOR: A companion piece to A Walk to Beautiful that examines the issue of obstetric fistula globally by interviewing experts and meeting women suffering from fistula around the world. [available as 'extra' on A Walk to Beautiful DVD]
WOMEN AND POWER – ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: A one-hour special documentary for PBS NOW joining women in various positions of power as they share the personal and public challenges they face. We hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire with former governor Jeanne Shaheen as she battles her way to the U.S. Senate, and in Chile we meet the country’s first woman president, Michele Bachelet. We travel to the East African country of Rwanda where women have achieved the highest number of women elected to the lower house of Parliament in the world. Back in New York we hear from the future generation of leaders at an all-girls high school debate competition. The show takes an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes risks, triumphs, and in some cases the defeat, of being a woman in power today. (Airdate: Fall 2008)
CHILD CRY – PRODUCER: Two short films about feeding programs in Colombia and the Philippines and the stories of children and families affected by this work. (2007)
BLACK BLIZZARD – DEVELOPMENT EXEC: A two hour special for The History Channel recreating America’s worst man-made environmental disaster: the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. (Airdate: Fall 2008)
GET FRESH WITH SARA SNOW – DEVELOPMENT EXEC: An 18 (half-hour) episode series and 4 (one-hour) specials following Sara Snow, Discovery Health Channel's resident natural living expert. In each episode, Sara visits green innovators who are forging the way to make a natural lifestyle both accessible and practical. (Discovery Health)
RUNWAY MOMS – DEVELOPMENT EXEC: Runway Moms follows the lives of a unique group of 21st century career women – pregnant models. We go behind the scenes at Expecting Models, the only modeling agency in the world that solely caters to pregnant models and the maternity modeling industry, where owner Liza Elliott-Ramirez presides over her stable of models like a godmother to the world of glamour. (Discovery Health)
THE DAN HO SHOW – DEVELOPMENT EXEC: In this 18 (half-hour) episode series and 4 (one-hour) specials, style guru Dan Ho is on a mission to free us from the shackles of perfection and teach us how to find balance and wellness in the most unexpected ways and places. Each episode of The Dan Ho Show follows Dan on his journey to help others abandon the “rules” of domestic perfection and “use what they’ve got” in order to decrease stress and lead healthier lives. (Discovery Health)
LITTLE SHOP OF FLOWERS – DEVELOPMENT EXEC: Little Shop of Flowers’ half-hour pilot episode follows the sometimes hectic and always exciting day-to-day operations of one of New York City’s hottest floral design companies, run by the mother/daughter team of Marilyn and Meredith Waga. (TLC)
Education:
New York University, B.F.A. Drama,
High Honors, 1997
Phillips Exeter Academy, 1994