EXCLUSIVE: Connor DeSha has joined America Ferrera‘s production company Take Fountain as Vice President of Development and Production.
A film and TV executive with over a decade of experience in creative development and production, DeSha was most recently Director of Narrative Film at Participant, the former media company dedicated to the intersection of art and activism. While there, he worked on films including the TIFF Changemaker Award-winning We Grown Now, an adaptation of the bestselling novel Out of My Mind, and Oscar winner Judas and the Black Messiah.
Prior to Participant, DeSha was a Creative Executive at Appian Way, working in development and production across film and TV, on projects like Robin Hood, The Right Stuff, Shining Girls, and Pete the Cat. He received his degree from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Founded by Ferrera in 2006, Take Fountain produced the Peabody Award-nominated Netflix series Gentefied, as well as films like The Dry Land, which premiered in Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2010, and X/Y, which premiered in Tribeca’s World Narrative Competition in 2014. Among their upcoming projects is Naked by the Window, a series adaptation of the book by Robert Katz, which tells the true story of the groundbreaking Cuban artist Ana Mendieta, her formidable impact on the New York art scene, and the controversial trial of her husband, Carl Andre, for her sudden and tragic death. In addition to producing, Ferrera will star in that one.
Coming off of her first Oscar nomination for her role as Gloria in the record-breaking Barbie, Ferrera will next be seen starring alongside Matthew McConaughey in Paul Greengrass’ Apple film The Lost Bus, based on a novel by Lizzie Johnson, which is set to premiere at TIFF and will release this fall.
