Award-winning production company Half Yard Productions has promoted Matt Ayres to the position of Vice President of Development with immediate effect, reporting to Nicole Sorrenti, Chief Creative Officer, Half Yard Productions.
The Say Yes to the Dress and The Last Alaskans producer has promoted Ayres from Director of Development, to take on an expanded role overseeing Half Yard’s creative output, while continuing to fuel the development pipeline in a period of intense growth for the company.
With a previous background in anthropological research and scripted feature fieldwork, Matt has over 15 years of experience as both a leading content creator and developer, working on productions including Twin Turbos and Hillbilly Handfishin’.
Sean Gallagher, CEO of Half Yard Productions, said: “Matt has been part of the Half Yard team since its earliest days and has played an instrumental role in launching new and noteworthy content, including our critically-acclaimed docu-series Raising Tourettes and factual series The Last Alaskans. He has a unique skillset to cultivate productions through development and into commission and production, and I am delighted that he is taking on this new role at an exciting time for the company.”
Half Yard Productions has recently been commissioned by Discovery to produce two major new spin-offs of successful franchise Say Yes to the Dress, which is currently in its 17th season for TLC: Say Yes to Nest for HGTV, which premiered in January and started a six-part run in March, and major new 10-part series Say Yes to the Dress America for TLC, premiering in January 2020. Other recent commissions include The Toe Bro, with Studio71, which premiered March 5 on A&E, and While You Were Out for both TLC and HGTV, which premiered March 16.