Gina Matthews
Lecturer
Like the acclaimed children’s book, Little Engine Co-Founder and Award Winning Writer, Producer, Director Gina Matthews has a guiding belief when it comes to business; “I think I can.” That perpetual effort coupled with deep talent relationships and strong creative instincts has lead to the production of over one hundred hours of television and a billion dollars in box office revenue.
On the film side, Matthews began her feature producing career with the hit horror franchise, “Urban
Legend.” She went on to produce “What Women Want” starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, “13 Going
On 30” starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, and most recently, “All My Life” for Universal
Pictures. Matthews produced the New Line Comedy “Isn’t it Romantic” starring Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine and Priyanka Chopra. The film went on to earn the respected ReFrame Stamp, for demonstrating success in gender-balanced hiring.
Currently, Matthews is producing sequels, “What Kids Want” for Paramount Pictures and “Isn’t It Scary” for New Line Cinema, a Holiday Romantic Comedy for Netflix, as well as producing and directing the comedy, “Synch or Swim” for Universal Studios.
For television, Matthews Co-Created and Executive Produced Ryan Murphy’s critically-acclaimed debut
“Popular,” which won a GLAAD award. Matthews served as Co-Show Runner on ABC’s action series,
“Missing” starring Ashley Judd (which earned Judd an Emmy nomination), “The Gates,” for ABC and “Rush” starring Tom Ellis. Her long form work includes the NatGeo event series “Saints & Strangers,” which was nominated for three Critic’s Choice Awards, and won a WGA Award. At Showtime, “The Wishing Tree” was nominated for five Emmy’s and Matthews took home an Emmy for “Summer’s End.”
Matthews served as Executive Producer and Show Runner for the holiday RomCom series, “Holidazed”.
In addition to co-writing the finale, Matthews stepped into the directors chair for the first time (launching next successful phase of her career). Also in the holiday genre, Matthews co-wrote and produced Vanity Fair’s 2023 Top Twenty Holiday Film titled “Holiday Road.” Currently, she is an Executive Producer on the Action/Heist series, “The Score” for Starz and is co-writing, producing and directing the romantic comedy series, “Love On Tour,” which is set in Italy.
Also, as EU passport holders, Matthews is well-positioned in the world of International Co-Productions.
As part of her expansion into the global production space, Matthews recently launched Vancover-based
Enginemaker Studios, a comprehensive Production and Service Company providing Production, Budgeting, Accounting, Legal and Tax Credit Management as well as financing and studio services for license-fee projects and co-productions. Through Enginemaker, productions have priority access to the best filmmaking equipment in the world, as well as their in-house, state of the art, Volume LED studio.
Matthews graduated from University Of Oregon with a BA in Telecommunications & Film and a Minor in Photography. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two wonderful children who still cite “The Little Engine That Could” as their favorite children’s book.
