Lars Schwinges

Lars Schwinges is a showrunner, producer and director with over 25 years of hands-on television and media experience. Lars was born, and grew up, in Cape Town - South Africa's most beautiful city. While at school at South African College Schools (SACS) he attended a lecture by the owner of Cape Town International Film & Television School. Both Lars and his brother, Marc, were captivated by what they were seeing and hearing and persuaded their parents to allow them to attend the Young Filmmakers Workshop offered by the school. Both brothers developed a passion for film-making and both have been in the industry for their entire lives. Since starting his career in television in 1992 at D&O Studios in Cape Town, Lars moved from being cameraman and editor to becoming a director/producer for South Africa's leading prime-time lifestyle magazine show; 'Top Billing', a position he held from 2008 until 2017. In 2001 the inevitable happened when two brothers work in the same industry. Lars moved to Johannesburg and worked for his brother at Underdog Productions. Over four years they worked on several critically acclaimed avant-garde documentaries and the late night adult variety series 'Below the Belt', hosted by the Baroness. The series became a cult hit and quadrupled viewership in it's time slot when broadcast in South Africa. It then was also well received in Australia (Foxtel Comedy Channel) and Germany (Timm TV). Lars moved back to Cape Town and in 2008 was employed at Tswelopele Productions for the countries most iconic and celebrated lifestyle television show, 'Top Billing'. In 2015 he was part of the team that created the daily live chat show 'Afternoon Express'. In 2016 he was executive producer of popular Afrikaans series 'Pasella'. Since 2014 Lars has produced and directed several lifestyle and reality shows for Cardova Productions, including the travel/cooking series 'Hayden Quinn: South Africa' (TLC Asia and SBS Food Australia). Reality show titles include two seasons of 'Presenter Search on 3', five seasons of the interior decorating competition series 'Win a Home' and three seasons of 'Tropika Island of Treasure' shot on the islands of the Seychelles, the Maldives and Curacao in the Caribbean. In 2019 Lars helped conceptualize, develop and was showrunner for Apprentice -like series 'The Next Brand Ambassador'. Besides the main focus of television production, Lars has, over the years, held a variety of positions, generally multi-tasking and fulfilling several functions at once; creating television programming, radio commercials, multi-media products, events and product launches. Lars has also written feature articles and interviews for both print and online publications. He has a love and a passion for the craft that hopefully reflects in everything he does.