Therese Hegarty (above) has been appointed chief executive officer of Helium, the production company founded by former Endemol Southern Star chief executive Mark Fennessy.
Most recently Chief Executive of Seven Studios Group – helming the group’s entities and activities across Sydney, Melbourne, London, Auckland and Los Angeles, and previously VP production and business for Beyond International – Hegarty has extensive experience in program development, production and distribution across both production company and broadcast platforms.
Having successfully developed and executed content in various genres for both the Australian and global marketplace, Hegarty is now focused on creating Australian content for local and international audiences and finding partnership opportunities with creative people and companies.
Helium founder Mark Fennessy
In making the announcement Helium founder, chief creative officer and chair Mark Fennessy said: “Therese is a highly talented and respected executive. In balancing creative excellence with astute business acumen, she has achieved extraordinary things.
“She is perfectly suited to lead our vibrant young team and I’m delighted she has agreed to join us,” he continued.
Therese Hegarty said “Mark is a hugely talented and successful executive, creative and a truly lateral thinker, and I am thrilled to be joining him and the wonderful Helium team. The company already has great momentum, and I am excited to build on that energy and field of opportunity to help shape Helium’s future growth in the Australian and global content market.”
Cineflex secures Helium debut
Earlier this week, Cineflix Rights announced it is partnering with Mark Fennessy’s indie to bring the new Australian true crime drama Last King of The Cross to audiences worldwide.
Last King of The Cross (10×60’) which has been greenlit by streaming service Paramount+ in Australia, is an operatic story of two immigrant brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim—one worshipped by his father and the other scorned— who organise the street but lose each other across their ascent to power. An elevated serialised drama, Last King of The Cross tracks John Ibrahim’s rise from a poverty-stricken immigrant with no education, no money, and no prospects, to Australia’s most infamous nightclub mogul in Sydney’s Kings Cross: a mini-Atlantic City, barely half a mile long with every form of criminality on offer.
John Ibrahim
Inspired by John Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography Last King of The Cross, the series is written by multi-award-winning writer/director Kieran Darcy-Smith (Wolf Creek, The Duel), who will also direct.
James Durie, head of scripted Cineflix Rights, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Mark and Helium on Last King of The Cross—a truly authentic depiction of gangster life, set against the backdrop of one of the most iconic locations on the planet. Based around classic themes of family bonds being tested, criminal empire-building, and corruption which echo some of the most successful movies and TV shows of recent years, we believe it has huge potential with international audiences.”
Mark Fennessy added: “John Ibrahim’s story is an incredible tale of the violence and brutality behind the infamous Kings Cross of the 1990s. But the soul and foundation of Last King of The Cross lies within its rich characters and their relationships, and, in particular, two immigrant brothers with a fractured sense of identity, culture and family – who are forced to the limits as they find out that blood is thicker than water, but you can drown in both. I am looking forward to working with Cineflix Rights to share this amazing tale with viewers around the world.”
See also: Mark Fennessy’s Helium: Production pioneer launches new business