About King Bee Productions
King Bee Productions is a talent-led production company founded by actor, director, and writer Emily Mortimer and actor-producer Alessandro Nivola. Led by Lizzie Nastro, the company develops and produces prestige film and television for a broad, international audience. King Bee first produced two seasons of the critically acclaimed HBO/Sky half-hour comedy Doll & Em, created by Mortimer and Dolly Wells, and has since developed projects with Showtime and HBO Max.
On the feature side, the company has produced the documentary art films I Am A Town and Summer Tour, as well as the independent feature To Dust, which won both the Best Director and Audience Awards at the Tribeca Film Festival and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination. King Bee is currently producing Mortimer’s feature directorial debut in partnership with Fruit Tree and A24, and recently signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television.
Recent Work
Doll and Em
A half-hour HBO and Sky Atlantic comedy series which ran for two seasons. An actress named Em and her best friend Doll navigate their friendship once Em hires Doll to be her assistant. Starring Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells. Written by Emily Mortimer, Dolly Wells and directed by Azazel Jacobs.
I Am A Town
A documentary directed by Mischa Richter which premiered at 2020 Doc Fortnight at MoMA. The film is a poetic meditation on Mischa’s hometown of Provincetown Massachusetts, and features eccentric residents of the community talking about how this haven for artists and misfits has changed over the past 100 years. Produced with Ryan Hawke. Acquired by Cinema Guild.
To Dust
A 2018 comedy-drama directed by Shawn Synder, starring Géza Röhrig and Matthew Broderick, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning Audience Award. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloane Foundation Grant. A Hasidic cantor in upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, befriends a local community college biology professor and the two embark on an increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld.
Our Team
Emily Mortimer
Co-Founder
Alessandro Nivola is an award winning actor and producer. On Broadway he received Tony and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for his performance opposite Bradley Cooper in THE ELEPHANT MAN and a Drama Desk Award nomination for A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY opposite Helen Mirren. For Sebastian Lelio’s film DISOBEDIENCE opposite Rachel Weisz, he won the 2018 British Independent Film Award (BIFA) and was nominated for a London Critics Circle Award, and a UK National Film Award. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Lisa Cholodenko’s LAUREL CANYON and won a SAG Award and a Critics Choice Award for David O Russell’s AMERICAN HUSTLE. He won the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Best Actor Award and the Achievement in Acting Award at the 2009 Provincetown International Film Festival.
Nivola recently wrapped the Ryan Murphy series LOVE STORY in the role of Calvin Klein. He starred in the Academy Award winner THE BRUTALIST directed by Brady Corbet. Previously he starred as Dicki Moltisanto in the SOPRANOS prequel feature THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK and was in David O Russell’s film AMSTERDAM with Christian Bale and Margot Robbie. He starred opposite Russell Crowe, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Ariana DeBose in JC Chandor’s Marvel feature KRAVEN THE HUNTER. He also co-stars with André Holland in the Apple+ limited series THE BIG CIGAR, directed by Don Cheadle.
Emily Mortimer is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer. She has most recently wrapped principal photography on Dennis, her feature directing debut with A24 and Fruit Tree. She adapted and directed a three part adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s novel THE PURSUIT OF LOVE for the BBC and Amazon, which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Mortimer co-wrote Jay Kelly with Noah Baumbach, for which she earned a Critic’s Choice nomination. Mortimer’s break-out performance came in Nicole Holofcener’s critically acclaimed, LOVELY AND AMAZING, opposite Catherine Keener, which won her an Independent Spirit Award. She was also nominated for Best British Actress in a Supporting Role at the London Film Critics Circle Awards for her performance in David Mackenzie’s YOUNG ADAM, opposite Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton.
Mortimer’s television credits include two seasons of DOLL & EM on HBO, co-written by and co-starring her real-life best friend Dolly Wells. She also co-starred opposite Jeff Daniels in three seasons of HBO’s THE NEWSROOM created by Aaron Sorkin, and had a recurring role on NBC’s 30 ROCK.
Alessandro Nivola
Co-Founder
Latest News
Chloë Sevigny, a Lifelong Deadhead, Is Producing a Film About Deadheads - Summer Tour will screen this summer
Summer Tour, directed by her friend Mischa Richter, will screen this summer with distribution through Utopia.
Jim Broadbent, Kelly Macdonald and Jamie Demetriou Join Emily Mortimer’s Directorial Debut ‘Dennis’
Emily Mortimer‘s upcoming directorial debut “Dennis” has expanded its cast with a trio of fellow Brits.
Emily Mortimer Taps Alison Oliver & Yura Borisov To Lead ‘Dennis,’ Her Feature Directorial Debut For A24 & Fruit TreE
Written and directed by Mortimer, the film follows a British student (Oliver) and a Russian poet (Borisov) who fall in love in 1990s Moscow.
Our Partners
We are based in Brooklyn, NY and London.
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