About
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A Peek into Our Wonderland of Creativity
Little Engine is a creator-driven media company that develops, finances, produces, and distributes original, innovative TV series, feature films, and interactive content for an international audience, the young and young-at-heart. We're a little engine that fuels BIG stories.
What We Do
We make award-winning TV programs and digital properties featuring live-action and animated talking puppies, puppets, adventurers, aliens, artists, and astronauts. Tiny and Tall, Happy Trails, Starseeker, Cutie Pugs, Cutie Pugs ABC, Now You Know, Canada Crew, The Picco Incident, and more introduce magical worlds, intergalactic adventures, and furry-tailed fun to screens and audiences big and small.
Conveniently located in downtown Toronto, Canada, our offices operate out of Wallace Film Studios, a spacious, full-support, COVID-compliant facility with three sound stages, extensive lighting and grip support, a props build studio, hair/makeup and wardrobe rooms, a dining hall with a full kitchen, washrooms, and free parking on site. We're in great company with Ubisoft Toronto, Fresh TV, and Soho VFX next door and in a beautiful neighborhood with families, cafés, and parks.
Little Engine's mission is to entertain, enlighten, inspire, engage, and excite our audience with the power of exceptional storytelling. Women-owned and led, we advocate gender, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ equality, and we champion equity in the workplace. Come visit us!
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Meet The Team
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Maria Kennedy is the owner, executive producer, and co-founder of Little Engine Moving Pictures, overseeing all business aspects of Little Engine’s creative properties, including the company’s development, production, and distribution divisions. Since 2014, she has secured almost 10 million dollars in Canadian financing for developing and producing Little Engine’s series and digital content.
Under Maria’s direction, Little Engine’s new distribution division rapidly expanded to encompass a premium in-house and third-party title library. Maria has built and maintains strong partnerships with Canadian broadcasters CBC, TVO, TFO, Knowledge Television, Société Radio-Canada, SuperChannel, and OMNI, as well as national funding agencies Canada Media Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, Rogers Telefund, Ontario Creates Bell Fund and COGECO Fund. She has produced TV series, feature films, commercials, branded content, and companion interactive websites and games. Her debut series, Now You Know, was licensed to over 100 territories worldwide.
She is a recipient of the BANFF Spark Program, the National Screen Institute Feature Film Program, the Canadian Creative Accelerator, and the CFC Canadian Film Centre Fifth Wave Initiative. Maria is a Youth Media Alliance board member who fosters mentorship for emerging gender and culturally diverse creators and producers. A strong advocate of gender, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ equity in the workplace, Maria encourages creators, animators, newcomers, and media industry veterans to say hello.
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Ben Mazzotta is an executive producer and the creative force behind Little Engine Moving Pictures. Since the company's inception in 2008, he has created, written, directed, and executive produced 6 TV series, 3 interactive websites, 24 digital games, 3 feature films, and over 20 documentaries, including Cutie Pugs, Cutie Pugs ABC, Now You Know, The Picco Incident, Canada Crew, Yard Rescuers, Diverse City, and The Limits. His debut kids' series, Now You Know, sold in over 100 territories worldwide.
In 2019, Cutie Pugs won a Kidscreen, Youth Media Alliance, and W3 Interactive Award. His first self-funded feature film, The Limits, won Best Canadian Drama at Reelworld and was sold to Super Channel for almost four times its production budget. Ben is a BANFF and Prix Jeunesse-nominated writer and director, equally adept at animating, visual effects, and storyboarding, with over 300 episode and documentary credits. Ben has directed digital series and ad campaigns for companies like Walmart, 3M, Instagram, Xbox, the Royal Bank of Canada, Teletoon, General Electric, MinuteMaid, and Neilson Canada. In his third year of Ryerson Film School, he co-produced, DOP'd, and edited the short film Use Once and Destroy, which won Best Short Film at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale International Film Festival.
Maria Kennedy is the owner, executive producer, and co-founder of Little Engine Moving Pictures, overseeing all business aspects of Little Engine’s creative properties, including the company’s development, production, and distribution divisions. Since 2014, she has secured almost 10 million dollars in Canadian financing for developing and producing Little Engine’s series and digital content.
Under Maria’s direction, Little Engine’s new distribution division rapidly expanded to encompass a premium in-house and third-party title library. Maria has built and maintains strong partnerships with Canadian broadcasters CBC, TVO, TFO, Knowledge Television, Société Radio-Canada, SuperChannel, and OMNI, as well as national funding agencies Canada Media Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, Rogers Telefund, Ontario Creates Bell Fund and COGECO Fund. She has produced TV series, feature films, commercials, branded content, and companion interactive websites and games. Her debut series, Now You Know, was licensed to over 100 territories worldwide.
She is a recipient of the BANFF Spark Program, the National Screen Institute Feature Film Program, the Canadian Creative Accelerator, and the CFC Canadian Film Centre Fifth Wave Initiative. Maria is a Youth Media Alliance board member who fosters mentorship for emerging gender and culturally diverse creators and producers. A strong advocate of gender, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ equity in the workplace, Maria encourages creators, animators, newcomers, and media industry veterans to say hello.
Ben Mazzotta is an executive producer and the creative force behind Little Engine Moving Pictures. Since the company's inception in 2008, he has created, written, directed, and executive produced 6 TV series, 3 interactive websites, 24 digital games, 3 feature films, and over 20 documentaries, including Cutie Pugs, Cutie Pugs ABC, Now You Know, The Picco Incident, Canada Crew, Yard Rescuers, Diverse City, and The Limits. His debut kids' series, Now You Know, sold in over 100 territories worldwide.
In 2019, Cutie Pugs won a Kidscreen, Youth Media Alliance, and W3 Interactive Award. His first self-funded feature film, The Limits, won Best Canadian Drama at Reelworld and was sold to Super Channel for almost four times its production budget. Ben is a BANFF and Prix Jeunesse-nominated writer and director, equally adept at animating, visual effects, and storyboarding, with over 300 episode and documentary credits. Ben has directed digital series and ad campaigns for companies like Walmart, 3M, Instagram, Xbox, the Royal Bank of Canada, Teletoon, General Electric, MinuteMaid, and Neilson Canada. In his third year of Ryerson Film School, he co-produced, DOP'd, and edited the short film Use Once and Destroy, which won Best Short Film at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale International Film Festival.
Charlotte Pauli is the business affairs associate of Little Engine Moving Pictures. She assists with the dreaded paperwork side of the business to keep the engine running smoothly. Charlotte provides business, administrative, and creative support for day-to-day activities. She was studying for her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Cultures in Germany when she had the opportunity to pursue a writing and directing course as part of an exchange semester at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. Finding her calling in film, she began interning at various production houses in Germany. Charlotte has produced several short films, including the psychological horror thriller INSIDE, which was produced almost entirely during the pandemic and has been nominated for and won several awards at Toronto indie film festivals.
Charlotte is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Advanced Television and Film program and Centennial College’s Film & TV Business program, with a focus on producing and screenwriting.
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Kyle Perez is the business development lead for Little Engine Moving Pictures. He assists in the day-to-day development of Little Engine's TV slate. Kyle provides creative and administrative support for the rapidly expanding production and distribution pipeline. While he has always been a fan of TV and film, his background lies in business, where he has worked in brand marketing, sales, and social media. Kyle's enthusiasm and affinity for the entertainment industry have translated into his success on IMDb and Instagram. On IMDb, he is the world's 6th most prolific poll author, drawing more than 650,000 votes from users on the site. On the Instagram platform, he is an influencer in the TV and film space, amassing a following of over 150,000 users and counting.
Kyle graduated from the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University with a Bachelor of Business Administration (Marketing Co-op Option) and a Minor in Film Studies.
Tope Babalola is the creative executive at Little Engine Moving Pictures. He leads the development of new IP, series, and optioned projects. He is also the creator, writer, director, and co-executive producer of Benjamin Ojo, a tween mystery series in development with Little Engine.
Before joining Little Engine, the Nigerian-Canadian filmmaker and content creator combined his multiple skillsets in comedic writing, directing, editing, performance, and visual effects to amass over 2.1 million followers on his TikTok account, which continues to grow with tens of millions of monthly views across his videos. Tope graduated from Sheridan College’s Advanced Television and Film Program, where he produced several short films, including the short documentary They Can’t. So I Must (2022), which won the Best Student Short Film award at its London, UK, premiere at the Kingston International Film Festival.
Nicole has been in the business of making television for over 20 years, many of which were spent in the kidsphere creating, producing and directing entertaining and educational multi-screen content for Kids’ broadcasters. In recent years, she has been providing her business expertise to independent documentary and factual programming producers in the roles of line-producer and business affairs manager.
Careers
Your ticket to a whole new world
At Little Engine, we're constantly on the lookout for like-minded individuals with a passion for storytelling and the kid's TV landscape. Woman-owned and led, we advocate gender, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ equality. We encourage applicants to apply for opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity and expression, disability, economic status, and other diverse backgrounds. We welcome everyone and are firm believers that diversity, both on and behind the screen, is vital to our industry.