Kirk Shaw
Co-President of Ambitious Entertainment
Kirk Shaw is one of North America’s most prolific award-winning producers, with more than 250 films and television credits spanning a career of over three decades. His work has included partnerships with all major studios and collaborations with A-list talent such as Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron, Ashton Kutcher, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta, and Cuba Gooding Jr., among others. Over the years, Shaw has been acknowledged for his leadership in the entertainment industry and innovative approaches to financing and packaging film and television productions.
In 2017, Shaw was inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame to recognize his lasting impact on Canada’s screen industry.
Creative and Leadership Skills
He is well known for building Canada’s largest independent production company and turning creative concepts into globally competitive ventures. His career as a CEO blends in-depth knowledge of scripted and non-scripted production with strategic abilities in high-concept IP packaging, financing, and managing international co-productions.
He has overseen the complete content pipeline—from IP acquisition and development strategy to supervising budgets between $1 million and over $200 million. Kirk has worked with leading talent and formed partnerships across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, ensuring projects reach theatrical, streaming, and broadcast audiences worldwide.
His professional strengths include business affairs, legal oversight, investor relations, and marketing strategy. Shaw’s leadership supports creative teams while delivering measurable corporate results that align with audience appeal and business objectives.
Ambitious Entertainment
He is Co-President of Ambitious Entertainment, a studio centered on global content packaging with offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Established in 2017, the company has produced projects such as Guns of Redemption, Viper, and Dead Man’s Hand.
By 2025, Shaw had developed Ambitious into a fully integrated IP-acquisition and packaging studio, producing for streamers, major studios, and the international marketplace. The studio focuses on profitable, high-concept storytelling and works to connect top-tier talent with distribution opportunities around the globe. Ambitious is positioned to become a publicly traded company on the NYSE.
Founder, CEO, & Executive Producer – Odyssey Media Inc.
2009 Kirk Shaw created Odyssey Media Inc., a boutique studio specializing in lower-risk international co-productions. With a $25 million investment fund backing, he financed over 20 films with combined budgets exceeding $70 million.
Among Odyssey’s notable credits are Drive Hard (filmed in Australia with John Cusack), Pound of Flesh (filmed in China with Jean-Claude Van Damme), and the adaptation of the best-selling novel The Town That Came A-Courting (filmed in Canada with Valerie Harper).
Founder – Insight Film Studios
Shaw’s career began in 1990 when he founded Insight Film Studios. The company started by producing audio guides for museums but soon shifted its focus to visual productions, including documentaries and the series Inside Track.
By the early 2000s, Insight had moved into long-form projects, beginning with the 2002 sci-fi film Maximum Surge, which was made for DVD. Shaw expanded Insight into Canada’s largest independent film and television production company, producing over 130 titles and managing annual budgets exceeding $200 million.
Notable productions from this period include Battle in Seattle (2007), a political drama starring Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson, which received Leo Award nominations; Helen (2009), featuring Ashley Judd, who won a Leo Award for her role; and The Hurt Locker (2008), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, which won both Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards. Additional credits include When A Man Falls, starring Timothy Hutton and Sharon Stone, and Personal Effects, starring Ashton Kutcher.
In television, Shaw produced the Lifetime series Blood Ties and the Sci Fi series Painkiller Jane. By the mid-2000s, Insight Film Studios had created thousands of jobs and generated more than CAD 500 million in local economic activity.
Professional Associations
Kirk Shaw is a member of the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, and the Producers Guild of America (PGA).
Early Life and Education
Shaw studied journalism at Douglas College in British Columbia, initially planning to work as a writer. In 1978 he helped launch the Edmonton Sun newspaper, gaining early leadership and operational experience.
He spent the 1980s working in the computer industry before transitioning to film production. Shaw attended the Vancouver Film School, where he studied screenwriting, and joined a program at the National Screen Institute (NSI) of Canada that specialized in film, television, and digital media production.
The producing module at NSI included training in project development, budgeting, financing and funding strategies, production management, scheduling, collaboration with writers, directors, and crew, and methods for distributing and marketing screen content.
Learn more:
Social Media Star Adam Rose Making Feature Directorial Debut With Comedy ‘15 Minutes’