What is Uni5 Entertainment?

UNI5 Entertainment Inc. is a leading national product and brand integration firm headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Aligned with an award winning production team and over 60 years combined experience and expertise, UNI5 Entertainment embodies innovation and is responsible for the creation, production and distribution of Canadian content programs in the drama, reality based, comedy and lifestyle genres on television, online, mobile and other emerging platforms.

UNI5 works directly with national and global brands seeking to seamlessly integrate themselves into popular culture. Working closely with a talented pool of producers, writers, directors and actors, UNI5 ensures that product and brand integrations are carried out with integrity and authenticity from inception to execution. UNI5 draws on up-and-coming technologies and revolutionary entertainment properties to provide our clients with effective branding opportunities. UNI5 delivers a new era of achieving fusion of entertainment properties and brands, a remarkably innovative era of advertisement and entertainment!

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Meet the Team

Andy Thomson

Partner, Executive Producer

Andy is a 40 year veteran of the film and television industry. He began his career in 1968 with the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal. He spent 17 years there as a director, producer and executive producer and received two Academy Award nominations during that period (Blackwood, 1976, and The Painted Door, 1984).

In 1986 he left the Film Board and went on to found Great North Productions based in Edmonton, Alberta. He served as President and CEO of the company until it was acquired by Alliance Atlantis in 2000 when it had grown to become the largest producer of factual programming in Canada.

From 2000 to 2005, Andy served as Executive Vice President, Factual Production for Alliance Atlantis based in Toronto. There, he supervised the development, production and distribution of more than one hundred hours of factual programming per year.

In 2005, Alliance Atlantis exited the production business and Andy established Entente Entertainment in partnership with former Alliance Atlantis lawyer Richard Hanet. Entente acted as an agent and consultant, helping factual producers find financing and distribution for their projects. Its client list included many well known factual producers and directors worldwide.

Barbara Shearer

Partner, Producer

Gemini winning producer, writer and director, Barbara Shearer is currently developing a slate of new material after creating the hit docu-crime series,“Pretty Dangerous” for Global Television Network, Lifetime, and Channel 5 (U.K. ).

Shearer began her television career at the CBC and went on to produce, direct, and write over forty-fve hours of television, including, Truthseekers, a five hour series where science meets the paranormal, for Discovery Channel; Women Who Love Killers, a controversial documentary for HBO; V6A 1N6, an investigative documentary for CTV, along with many others for W Network, History Channel, PBS, and YTV.

She also spent two years as a Production Executive for the Women’s Television Network where she initiated, developed and oversaw all documentaries and several lifestyle programs for the network.

Shearer completed the Business and Media Program at the Schulich School of Business, York University in 2008.

Jay Baguioro

President, Partner, Executive Producer

Jay Baguioro is an entrepreneur and realty investor. An innate interest in business and in realty markets afforded him ownership of a chain of investment properties across southern Ontario in his 20s. He brings over 10 years of product development, sales and marketing experience through his position with CTV as Sales Executive, Discovery Channel Canada, Animal Planet, travel+excape, Discovery Civilization and Project Manager, Interactive Sales for all Discovery network websites. His forte is cultivating relationships and pursuing sales from high ranking executives and key players in Canada's broadcast and interactive world, both at the advertising agency level and at the direct client level.

Patricia Phillips

Partner, Producer

Patricia was creative producer (2008-2009) on the recently televised two hour docudrama Death or Canada, produced for History Canada, RTE Ireland and History UK.

From July 2004 to 2008 Patricia was General Manager and Senior Producer for Amerimage Productions, a documentary production house based in Toronto and owned by Amerimage Spectra, part of the Equipe Spectra group of companies based in Montreal. She was executive producer of a three part series, Medical Secrets, for Discovery Health Canada and Discovery Health US and a one hour special Japan’s Atomic Bomb produced for History Television in Canada, History Channel US and National Geographic International.

From April 2002 to June 2004, 2002 Patricia had been overseeing the creative quality and content of factual production for Alliance Atlantis, developing and producing factual programs for the domestic and international market. In addition, she has been Executive Producer on many productions and co-productions including: Hitler’s Victory; Inventing the Past; Surviving Extremes and Going to More Extremes. Previously, in her capacity as Senior Vice President with AAC FACT, International Co-productions, she attended film and television markets on a regular basis to pursue co-production ventures with international producers and broadcasters, and was responsible for creatively overseeing a number of co-productions for History Television Canada and S4C Wales, including Edgar Christian: Lost on the Barrens, The Great Divide: The Journeys of David Thompson and War Surgeons, all produced by the Edmonton office. Other co-productions for S4C and History Television Canada include Amazons with Teledu Telesgop Ltd. of Wales, and Kinmel Park Riots, with Andy Brice Productions, Wales. The latter won Gold at WorldFest Houston 2001 and a Bronze Plaque from the Columbus International Film & Video Festival 2001.

Ms. Phillips produced Of Pigs And Men—a third documentary on misunderstood animals produced with Interspot Films of Austria. The first in the series, The Rat Among Us (written by Patricia and co-produced with Heinrich Mayer for ORF, Discovery Canada, and Discovery U.S.), was a Gemini Award finalist. Heinrich and Patricia went on to co-produce Doves and Pigeons, receiving a Finalist Certificate (Nature & Wildlife), New York Festivals 2001, and the City of Montreal Award from Telescience 2001 (Best Film, Science & Nature).

Patricia was the driving force behind Circus, a half-hour series for Life Network following the characters of the Garden Bros. Circus, and she produced five seasons of The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation for History Television. For that series she wrote and directed four programs: “Bible Bill” Aberhart: Man of the Hour, on the flambuoyant Alberta premier; Elizabeth Arden: Behind The Red Door, a profile of the famed beauty queen which received a Silver Award from WorldFest Houston in 2001; a third about pioneer filmmaker Nell Shipman titled Ah gee, forgetting me, which was a Gemini nominee in 2002 and received a Bronze Plaque (Arts Biographies) at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival 2001; and Family Secrets, the biography of a World War II spy.

Prior to joining Factual Production - Toronto, Patricia was President of Edmonton-based Great North Productions. Responsible for overseeing the development and production of all Great North programming, her specific credits also include co-creating and producing the long-running series Acorn The Nature Nut for Discovery Canada and Animal Planet, and writing and directing Patrick: The Man, The Myth for A&E, S4C and RTE, Ireland.

Before joining Great North in 1989, Patricia had a prolific acting career in film, television, stage and radio/ She has received or been nominated for almost every major Canadian acting award winning the ACTRA Award for Best Radio Performance for her role in The Deviners in 1984. Patricia also worked as a film editor, dramaturge and writer. Theatrical movies in which she has had featured roles include Jane of Lantern Hill and Looking For Miracles for Sullivan Films and Bayo and The Last Straw. She was a regular in the television series War of the Worlds and in the dramatic series, Destiny Ridge. Patricia has also directed theatrical productions for National Theatre School and The University of Alberta (Edmonton) Theatre department.

In June 1997 she was elected to the Board of the Banff Television Festival and served on the board until 2004.

Patricia graduated in 1972 from the National Theatre School in Montreal where she was a scholarship recipient and later studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio. She is married with three step-children and enjoys golf, skiing and sailing.

Penny Noble

Treasurer, Partner, Producer

At the tender age of 21, when her more sensible contemporaries were working on a university degree, Penny thought it might be prudent to open a talent agency. Today, over twenty years later, Noble Caplan Abrams (a division of Noble Talent Management Inc.) is one of Canada’s most successful agencies with a staff of fifteen representing actors in stage, film, television, commercials, voice over and animation.

Noble Caplan Abrams clients have worked on numerous Broadway stages as well as the Stratford and Shaw Festivals and can be seen as series leads in most television series produced in Canada. The roster of clients includes Gordon Pinsent, Peter Keleghan, Hugh Dillon (Flashpoint, etc.), Megan Follows, Michael Seater (Life with Derek, etc.), Nicholas Campbell, Louise Pitre, Sonja Smits and many other prestigious names in the entertainment industry.

Penny also works with writers to develop television and film projects and has been a consultant for several small businesses.

Penny is a single mom to two daughters adopted from China.