Amaze Team

Teza Lawrence
Executive Producer/Co-owner

Teza lives on a farm north of Toronto with her husband, 3 kids, a flock of sheep, and a Ram named Justin Bieber.

Teza Lawrence is an award-winning producer and the co-founder of Amaze. She is a passionate storyteller and has a wide variety of interests that she hopes will positively impact the planet, specifically a deep love for trees. Over the past 20 years, Teza has co-built Amaze to be a creative incubator and producer of market-driven television and films. Past projects include CARTER for SONY and BELL MEDIA, THE STANLEY DYNAMIC for CORUS, and CALL ME FITZ for HBO CANADA. She also executive produced three feature films: FINN ON THE FLY and SAINT RALPH, which had their world premiere at TIFF, and BEING CANADIAN, which premiered at HotDocs.

Michael Souther
Executive Producer/Co-owner

Mike loves to travel and can sniff out an upgrade from a mile away.

Michael Souther is an award-winning producer. Michael began his career directing, writing, and producing the short film PATTI BURNS, which became a backdoor pilot for THE COMEDY NETWORK and the flagship show for Amaze. Michael has a strong commitment to telling LGBTQ stories and recently finished executive producing the first season of the half-hour comedy THE LAKE for AMAZON PRIME VIDEO. Past projects include CARTER for SONY and BELL MEDIA, THE STANLEY DYNAMIC for CORUS, and CALL ME FITZ for HBO CANADA. He also executive produced three feature films: FINN ON THE FLY and SAINT RALPH, which had their world premiere at TIFF, and BEING CANADIAN, which premiered at HotDocs.     

Victoria Hirst
Producer

She enjoys being outdoors, swimming and embracing an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

Victoria has been working with Amaze since 2013, overseeing TV projects from development, through production, post, delivery and distribution. Prior to that, her film producing career includes being Co-Producer on the Oscar-nominated AWAY FROM HER, and the Sundance favourite OWNING MAHOWNY. She has worked on cult faves such as; AMERICAN PSYCHO; and SUCK, and she travelled the world on the music documentaries; IRON MAIDEN FLIGHT 666 and GLOBAL METAL. She independently produced TWIST and CENTURY HOTEL.

Irene Sudorgin
Business Affairs

She is based in Toronto but enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and three daughters north of Toronto on Lake Simcoe.

Irene joined Amaze in 2019 bringing with her a background in performing arts, a degree in Business, and almost 20 years of Business Affairs experience in Film, Television, and Animation.  Irene manages the BA side of Amaze’s projects in various stages of development, production, and distribution.
Prior to joining Amaze, Irene provided consulting services to independent producers, after spending 10 years as Director of Business Affairs at C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, a busy computer animation and special effects studio.

Caroline Murphy
Accounting

She likes listening to, and sometimes dancing to, The Big Band Show on jazz. FM91.

Caroline joined Amaze in 2018 on the corporate accounting side. Caroline has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and a CPA from California.  Caroline has held senior roles at content companies including Atlantis, Breakthrough; and White Pine where she was Associate Producer of the series CRACKED and Co-Executive Producer of the documentary FIGHT LIKE SOLDIERS.

Ryan St Peters
Development, Kids & Family

Bio to come.

Arianne Staples
Head of US Development

Arianne joined Amaze in 2019, where she manages the development of TV projects in the US, Canada and abroad, including THE LAKE and RETURN TO EDENVIEW. She was previously VP of Development at Rare Birds Productions and Le Train Train Productions where she shepherded multiple projects for WBTV including the acclaimed series CLAWS at TNT. When not looking for new material and collaborators, she can be found sipping wine and explaining the world to her shihtzu puppies, Franklin and Bernadette.

Hugo van Essen
Producer's Assistant

Originally from The Netherlands, Hugo graduated from Humber College’s Writing & Producing for TV in 2019. Hugo used his experience in Dutch film production to become a Covid Compliance Officer for Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (ViacomCBS). Now, Hugo uses his organizational skills to put the “prod” in Producer’s Assistant for Mike & Teza. Fueled by ravenous curiosity and adventure, Hugo enjoys climbing all sorts of things, ranging from corporate ladders to bouldering gyms!