Daniel Severa

Former Czech kayak racer and multiple national and state (Czechoslovakia) champion, as well as European vice champion, after few years career as a State Bank executive officer, find out his life position in entertainment industry. Shortly after Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution" (1989), Severa has been involved in production of Juraj Herz's "The Frog King" - long feature fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen with international cast. Two years later, after few TV dramas and crimes series for predominately French, German and Italian TVs (i.e. "Kaminsky - un flic à Moscou", "Wolfgang A. Mozart", "Della note all'alba", "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicle") as free-lance production manager, he founded own company Talent Connection, firstly as casting agency, which becomes the biggest talent agency in former Czechoslovakia in next six months. In the same period (1992) Severa has been by Czech Ministry of Culture appointed for Film Market Director of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. President of this first independent annual volume was Academy Award winner, director Jiri Mezel. Till middle 90's Severa collaborated on spectacular features i.e. Joseph Vielsmayer's "Staligrad" or Lauren Boutonnat's "Where the Wolves Howls" (aka Giorgino) where stared famous French-Canadian singer Mylène Farmer and legend of European movie pictures Jaen-Pierre Aumont ("Day for Night"). Ensued three years pan-European developing and preproduction of presumed life movie of Cannes Gold Palm and double Academy Awards nominee director Lordan Zafranovic - "The Last Story of the Century", with Mickey Rourke, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Olympia Dukakis, where Severa as well as his company lost a lot of money. Finally he left the project. Upon this experience Severa turned his focus to play-acting and in period 1997 - 2004 produced comedies and dramas i.e. Donald Churchill's "The Decorator", Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers", Tracy Lets "Killer Joe", Tennessee Williams "The Glass Menagerie", William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", Eugène Labiche's "Le plus Heureux des Trois" and Christian Guidicelli's "La Première Tête". From 2001, when Severa recurred to film and TV industry, he produced at first two videos with the famous Czech magician, six episode of TV magazine (for national-wide public TV) and full-length documentary again with Lordan Zafranovic. In the beginning of 2005 was Severa invited for the production of a weekly prime-time TV show "You've Got Mail" (C'è posta per te, Posta pro Tebe) by company ProTV and till the summer 2012 Czech Television (public broadcaster) aired 297 episodes of it with average up to 30% share. It presents upon whole c. 300 Mio viewers. The show has became a flagship of biggest broadcaster on Czech TV market and Czech TV count with it minimally till autumn season 2012. Later in 2005 he met in ProTV again with director Juraj Herz on production of one hour pilot of sitcom series "Love Your Fellowmen" for TV Prima. In the second half of 2006 he also produced pilot and 18 regular episodes of another one hour prime-time TV show "Incognito" (aired weekly on national-wide TV Prima) for the same company. As well as in case of Czech TV and "You've Got Mail, "Incognito" ranked among the best entertainment shows of TV Prima and, though by different title and produced by another company, was successfully aired weekly till 2011 and in 2007 and again in 2008 obtained TyTy Award (statewide annual audience prize by most popular TV weekly magazine - the most prestigious local TV award). Also for ProTV Severa in June and July 2007 produced 9 one hour episodes of "You've Got Mail - Come Backs" (Posta pro Tebe - Navraty), which markedly dominated in all rating items in the course of summer season 2007 to TV broadcasting in Czech republic. All at once Severa was in 2006-7 the executive producer of the Czech feature film "Bestiar" (Beastiarium) directed by Irena Pavlaskova by the same name bestseller of Barbara Nesvadbova produced by Petr Keller's company Starlite Films. Regarding to full up of his working calendar, he sold to Balzer International Films the rights of "Snezenky a machri 2" (Snowdrops and Sparks 2), a sequel of the famous cult Czech comedy of teenage students on an obligate high school ski exercise, which he owned from 2003. In autumn 2007 Severa started preparation of the most expensive TV drama series in Czech history "Expozitura" for the prime local commercial broadcaster TV Nova. The present period crime series of 16 episodes of 75 minutes each is based on true story and production was finished on spring 2009. Unfortunately TV Nova senselessly archived it for 2 and half years and aired it in fall 2011. Even "Expozitura" achieved excellent ratings average (more than 30%), lost its topicality and uniqueness that would have had in 2009. In July 2008, in the middle of "Expozitura" shooting, Severa also daringly starts the ambitious project - historical crime TV series working titled as "King's Judge" in TV Nova and Three Brothers co-production based on local bestseller novel series "Sir Oldrich of Chlum Tales" by Vlastimil Vonduska. Top casted 15th century stories are situated to Czech Kingdom in period of domination of Premysl II. Ottokar, called The Iron and Golden King. Right after the first screening of this TV pilot, Bioscop (Czech film distribution leader) ask for theatrical version. So, from May 2009 was the film with distribution title "In The Name Of The King" (Jmenem krale) in Czech and Slovak cinemas. Just before it Severa produced another series of 8 episodes of "You've Got Mail - Come Backs", which again dominated to summer TV broadcasting in Czech Republic. In autumn 2008 Severa also supervised co-production of Ziegler Film (BRD) and Maya Production (CZ) of historical spectacle movie picture "Henri IV" by Joe Baier based on Heinrich Mann novel, filmed in Czech Republic. In February 2009 Severa taken over production of second season of successful crime TV series "Kriminalka Andel" (CSI Prague) and on end of April the same year he starts principal photography of 16 one hour episodes of it for TV Nova. One year later Severa continuously produced another, already the third, series of "Kriminalka Andel" (CSI Prague). In 2010 was series nominated for Elsa Award (the most prestigious local annual TV prize by Czech Film and TV Academy). In the same year he also started preparation of Slovak version of this format for TV Markiza (leader Slovak commercial broadcaster), but realization finally never begun for CME's (Central Media Enterprise Group, TV Markiza owner) decision. In June 2010 he accepted offer from company CET 21 (CME group member and TV Nova owner) for position of Director of Fiction Production in CET 21 newly acquired production company Media Pro Pictures, which became exclusive content producer for TV Nova broadcasting. In this position Severa supervised productions as "Ordinace v ruzove zahrade" (Rose Garden Clinic - long running fiction TV series, one hour, twice a week), long term the most successful prime-time drama TV series in Czech republic, "Ulice" (The Street - one hour daily fiction TV series), long term the most successful access prime-time drama TV series in Czech republic, "Soukrome pasti 2" (Private Matters 2 - set of four TV films) , etc. As the first format in Central and Eastern Europe TV industry history was "Expozitura" in 2011 sold for local adaptations to USA, France and Russia. But chronic dissension with the chaotic, inconsistent and incompetent leadership, as applied by the Romanian megalomaniac company president Adrian Sarbu and his minions finally caused end of Severa's work in this company in summer 2011. Before it Severa produced TV movie "Villa Faber" as pilot movie for the same name romantic TV series and supervised production of TV series pilots "Gympl" (The College) and "Helena" (local version of sitcom Roseanne). All for TV Nova. And also produced another 16 one hour episodes (the third season) of "You've Got Mail - Come Backs" (Posta pro Tebe - Navraty), this time for the autumn season of public broadcaster Czech TV. Leavig Media Pro Pictures transpired for Severa more than happy circumstance. He at once joined production of weekly half an hour TV improvisation show "Particka" (The Crowd) produced by Maya Production for TV Prima, which TV Nova few month before non-understandable refused. Till summer 2012 TV Prima aired 45 episodes of it in prime-time, including New Year Eve one hour Special episode. As other Severa's production, "Particka" became in few weeks the most successful "small" TV entertainment show not only in TV Prima broadcasting, but on Czech TV market as well. For the year 2011 the show gained a total of three TyTy Awards, including the "Absolute Winner" category. In 2011, three major TV channels in the Czech Republic aired in first-run total of 112 hours of shows produced by Severa. 96 hours in prime-time and 16 hours in access prime-time (15 weeks of one show per week, 11 weeks of two shows per week, 6 weeks of three shows per week, 14 weeks of four shows per week and 1 week of five shows per week). It doesn't include the additional 243 hours of 2011 aired programs that Severa only supervised. In winter 2011/1012 Severa refused to offer the position of executive producer of the HBO production of Emmy, BAFTA Award and double Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Agnieszka Holland film "Horici ker" (Burning Bush) inspired by life story of Jan Palach and the same position in TV crime series "Cirkus Bukowski", which is assumed the biggest fiction production of public broadcaster Czech TV in 2012/2013. The reason was that, in addition to long-term collaboration with producer John Novotny and his Maya Production and preparation of new projects in the company BlueLight Production, where Severa bought a 50% share, he decided to devote this period to the core business in his agency Talent Connection, where he is CEO for all the time, and from March 2007 sole owner. The clients represented by agency obtained in last 20 years totally 14 nominations and 4 Czech Lion Award (annual movie picture prize by Czech Film and TV Academy), 1 nomination of and 1 Elsa Award (annual TV prize by Czech Film and TV Academy), 4 second place and 6 TyTy Awards (statewide annual audience prize by most popular TV weekly magazine), 13 nomination and 1 Angel Award (annual prize by Czech Popular Music Academy) and 4 third and 2 second places in Czech Nightingale (the most prestigious annual statewide opinion pool competition). During a few months after Severa decided in late 2011 to return the agency to the number one position in the domestic market, he successfully expanded agency portfolio by such stars as internationally reputable actor Karel Roden, actors doyen John Kanyza, often requested actor Michal Dlouhy, Czech Lion Award winner actor Hynek Cermak, Thalia Award winner and former Culture Minister and Ambassador to the Holy See actor and stage director Martin Stropnicky, a very promising actor and director Vladimir Skultety or young talented actress Anna Linhartova, nominated in 2011 for the Czech Lion Award.