We exist because these stories won't tell themselves.
The Gap We're Here To fill.
There is no shortage of talent among queer artists, older creators, and storytellers from unconventional backgrounds. What’s in short supply are production companies willing to build around them - to develop their stories with the patience, ambition, and creative respect they deserve.
Aquarian Entertainment was founded to be that company.
We produce original Canadian film and television centred on LGBTQ+ characters, older protagonists, gender-diverse individuals, and unconventional heroes, heroines, and they-roes - people who have accumulated damage, wisdom, contradictions, and the kind of hard-won clarity that makes for extraordinary drama and comedy. Our characters aren’t tokens. They aren’t side plots. They’re the ones driving the story, making the mistakes, and fighting for something that matters.
And the numbers tell the story of why this work is urgent. In Canada, adults over 65 make up nearly 20% of the population but are barely visible as leads in Canadian-produced film and television. LGBTQ+ characters account for a fraction of speaking roles on screen despite representing a significant and growing audience. Gender-diverse characters remain almost entirely absent from Canadian production. These aren’t niche audiences - they’re the mainstream, waiting to see themselves.
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Why Now?
The audience for these stories already exists. Queer viewers are hungry for narratives that go beyond coming-out arcs and trauma. Older audiences - the fastest-growing demographic in streaming - are tired of being invisible or reduced to punchlines. Gender-diverse audiences are looking for stories where they exist as full human beings, not teaching moments. And younger audiences have made it clear they want complexity, specificity, and characters who feel real, not market-tested.
Meanwhile, Canada is positioned to lead. Canadian production incentives, combined with deep creative ties to the US, UK, and Europe, make it an ideal base for building globally resonant stories rooted in a distinctly Canadian perspective. As the conversation around Canadian content intensifies - who makes it, who funds it, and whose stories it tells - there has never been a more important moment to invest in the voices that have been excluded from that conversation.
Aquarian exists to make sure those voices are part of it.
Our Narrative FocusWe tell stories about people who’ve spent their lives being underestimated — and who are done being quiet about it.
What We Make.
Our slate leans toward dark comedy, psychological thriller, and character-driven genre — stories set in heightened realities that are emotionally grounded and tonally unafraid. A 70-year-old ex-con waging war on a Florida HOA. A closeted boxer fighting for his life in and out of the ring. A grieving man who transforms his body to win back love in a rain-soaked near-future. These are stories about reinvention, about the distance between who we perform and who we actually are.
We're drawn to protagonists who are messy, defiant, funny, and a little dangerous — characters the industry doesn't always know what to do with. That's exactly why they need a home.
How We Work.
Aquarian Entertainment is a writer-led production company. That means the story comes first - not the algorithm or the package. We develop projects from the inside out, starting with voice, character, and the emotional engine that makes an audience care, then building the production architecture around that creative foundation.
We bring decades of international production experience to every project, along with a practical understanding of how art and commerce intersect. Our founder has produced and directed work across four continents, built brands for Fortune 500 companies, and spent a career in rooms where creative ambition has to survive contact with budgets, deadlines, and stakeholders who need convincing. That combination - artistic vision backed by production discipline - is what defines us.
Where We Are GoingAquarian is building for the long term. We’re starting with founder-driven projects because they have the clearest path to production and because we know these stories inside out. But the ambition has always been bigger than any one writer’s work.
Over the next decade, Aquarian will grow into a company that champions the work of many artists - writers, directors, and creators whose perspectives on queer life, aging, gender, and unconventional experience deserve the same creative investment and production infrastructure that established voices take for granted. That means fully Canadian productions, majority-Canadian co-productions, and select partnerships where we bring Canadian perspectives to international projects.
Meet the Founder.
Peter is a storyteller whose work is rooted in the lives of unconventional characters navigating worlds that weren’t built for them. He grew up queer in chaotic 1980s Florida, performed in the circus, stepped into the boxing ring in his forties, and spent a lifetime as an outsider in communities that didn’t know what to do with him. That perspective runs through everything he writes.
As founder and Artistic Director of Proto-type Theater, Peter produced and directed fifteen years of original work that toured to venues and festivals across the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa, earning coverage in The New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Guardian. In the UK, he created the Sunday Lunch Club, a development programme for mid-career artists supported by Arts Council England - an early expression of the same impulse that drives Aquarian: finding and championing artists whose work deserves a bigger stage.
His screenwriting has been recognised at Austin Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival, among others. He developed his feature screenplay Overhand through Stowe Story Labs and trained in television writing at MIDPOINT Writer’s Room in Prague.
Peter holds a PhD and MA from Lancaster University and is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Beyond the creative work, he brings years of experience in branding and marketing strategy — having produced Barbie’s first Game Boy Color title, led launches for major interactive entertainment brands, and consulted with C-suite executives on brand positioning.
He holds dual US-Canadian citizenship and is based in British Columbia.
Contact Us.
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Please do not send unsolicited scripts or project ideas. Start with an intro and we’ll take it from there.