Andrew Bakalar

Writer-Producer and Managing Director

Andrew has over 25 years of experience as an executive producer, director, and screenwriter in scripted and unscripted entertainment. His experience covers features, digital short format content, documentaries, branded entertainment, and dramatic television. With 5 years in Silicon Valley as Founder and CEO of a Citrix-funded online meetings platform startup, Andrew's expertise extends to entertainment as well as communications-related technology.

Andrew's career initiated in Los Angeles, producing children's television series for PBS, and working as a Development Assistant at 20th Century Fox while obtaining his MFA at the UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television. At UCLA Andrew wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning shorts "Country of Origin" and "Souvenirs," which were distributed in the U.S. and Europe.

Andrew went on to write in Hollywood at Walt Disney Studios within the studio's prestigious Writing Fellowship Program, where he developed two feature projects "Only the Best for Fifi" and "Texas in the Blood." He went on to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood on such feature projects as "The Bet" for Sony, " "To Run With the Bulls" and "Conquistador" for Fox, "Riverbound" for Touchstone, "Freedy at Your Service" for Columbia, "Winds of the Andes" for Televisa, and a series on the life of Marco Polo for Mandalay. In the mid 200s he wrote, directed, and produced the independent feature "Patient 14", which was picked up by Netflix and Lifetime Television in the U.S. and distributed by Universal. The film is the basis of a new TV series "Eavesdropper" currently being pitched in the U.K., U.S., and Holland.  The trailer can be found on YouTube.

Andrew also has experience in technology. In the late 2000s, he left Hollywood for Silicon Valley, and from 2009-2014 was CEO of One World Virtual, a tech startup funded by Citrix Systems which gave him an expertise in telecommunications, mobile and online consumer engagement, and entertainment-related data analytics.

Andrew founded Avina Media in the United States in 2017, and then moved to Europe in 2018 where Avina Media SAS in France was founded, followed by Avina Media SL in Spain.  Madrid became the headquarters of the company until May 2022, when Andrew moved the company to The Netherlands. Avina’s vision is to develop original scripted movies and series for local and international audiences in English and Dutch, but also for Scandinavian audiences.

Andrew earned a B.A. from Harvard and a master's in Screenwriting and Film Production from UCLA.  He is fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian, and has a working knowledge of Portuguese and Dutch.