PHIL VIARDO
President & CEO
Two-time Emmy Award-nominated producer, Phil Viardo’s extensive career in the entertainment industry spans decades and several roles prior to him landing on filmmaking and content creation as his ultimate focus. Branching out on his own with The Viardo Agency in 2001, his company quickly gained reputation as a respected entertainment firm in the fast- paced world of Hollywood dealmakers, representing companies such as Madonna’s Maverick Films, RAW Entertainment, Trigger Street Productions and lifestyle brands like Von Dutch, Antik Denim, graphics giant NVIDIA, among numerous others production, corporate, lifestyle and talent clients. Viardo expanded his operations to include production and management with the launch of Viardo Artists in 2009 where he started developing and producing content for his vast talent clientele. In 2013, he partnered up with an Emmy award-winning production company, Natural 9 Entertainment under their Tri- Crown Production Group umbrella, making a major focus pivot to production and content creation. Over the following 6 years, Viardo was instrumental in growing the company’s slate with numerous non-scripted and scripted projects, that include several award-winning and hit television series for ABC, The CW, WEtv, A+E, FYI, National Geographic, GSN and Univision among others.
To date, Phil has been responsible for creating development slate of over 100 documentary, non- fiction and scripted projects. He serves as the executive producer on the new stop-motion animated feature film “The Inventor” (US Theatrical Release), from Oscar-nominated writer/director, Jim Capobianco (“Ratatouille”/”Mary Poppins”), starring Stephen Frye, Daisy Ridley and Marion Cotillard. He is also the EP for the upcoming feature film “Hellfire Club,” written by Jeffrey Hatcher (“The Duchess”, “Casanova”) produced by Brian Oliver (“Black Swan”, “Top Gun: Maverick) In 2019, Viardo released his documentary feature “Public Enemy Number One,” co-produced with legendary artist and actor Ice T, that took top honors at numerous festivals including the Seattle Film Festival and is currently streaming everywhere. Years of creativity have also brought Viardo behind the camera, where he has now directed projects for Hulu, Oxygen, Univision, LG as well as several independent film and television titles.
In 2019, in a quest to advance his creative endeavors, Viardo teamed up with long-time friend and associate, American TV icon Christopher Knight to launch Former Prodigy Media. Out of the gate, the company landed development deals with major networks and producers and began developing yet another robust slate of documentary and scripted TV and film projects.
In 2020, Former Prodigy began production on “Truelove: The Film” their debut documentary film about a rare genetic disorder called Williams syndrome, that was quickly hampered by the Global COVID-19 pandemic. Directed by Viardo, they were finally able to release the film on the 2022 festival circuit earning several awards. “Truelove: The Film” was released via major streamers and cable/satellite services in North America in beyond in September 2023.
Currently in pre-production are several independent films as well as scripted and documentary series, including a premium true-crime doc “House With No Walls” directed by Vadim Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog”) due for release in 2024.