Jim Kiriakakis

Head of Television and Development, Buck Productions

Jim Kiriakakis has been with Buck Productions since 2000. He has grown into an award-winning

Producer and Gemini-nominated Director whose talents have taken him from Toronto to Kuala

Lumpur, Saskatchewan, Guatemala, and Vancouver producing television series, documentaries,

commercials, music videos, branded content and branded entertainment projects.

 

As Buck's Head of TV and Development and Senior Producer, Jim has been an integral part of

the creation and development of some of the most original and recognized unscripted

programming, including several North American firsts – Keys to the VIP (Comedy) the first pick-

up artist competition series; Saw Dogs (Velocity, OLN) the first doc series to focus on wood

chainsaw carvers; and Deals from the Dark Side (Syfy, OLN) again the first series about the

mysterious world of buying / selling macabre artifacts.

His ability to create television that works against the noise is uniquely embodied in the

primetime reality series, The Project Guatemala (Rogers/CITY) hosted by ultra marathoner Ray

Zahab (Running the Sahara). Drawing the attention of executives at Rogers and Group M with

it’s unique platform, the series pushed the standard of competition reality by giving it a

philanthropic infused core aiming to entertain and give reality TV substance and purpose.

Jim has also been a key player in helping Buck lead the way in Branded Content and Branded

Entertainment with clients like L’Oreal, Mitsubishi, and Kodoo Mobile. He also co-created and

produced the action-packed McMorris & McMorris (MTV, Fusion) in association with Red Bull

Media House which follows Canadian snowboarding brothers Mark and Craig McMorris. The

docu-series was a first for Red Bull on a non sports specialty channel, drawing attention from

the industry as a masterfully crafted example of how branded entertainment can be done. His

latest branded project is a beautiful travel series called Like a Tourist with editorial giant

AOL/Huffington Post which launches in July 2016.

Always striving to push the boundaries of style and storytelling with every project, Jim is no

stranger to setting benchmarks, evident by the standard setting; wedding reality genre hit Rich

Bride Poor Bride (WEtv, Slice) which successfully introduced the Buck Productions Unscripted

Division to the American market. Jim helped develop the series and served as the Senior

Producer and Director over its six-season run.

 

With a diverse portfolio of projects under him including over 175 episodes of original content to

draw from, Jim has quickly become one of the industries most talented factual television and

branded content producer/directors in Canada.