What’s your name and your usual job title(s)?
My name is Sarah Chow and I am a Story Producer/Story Editor.
How did you get started working in factual TV?
I was at the Banff Arts Centre doing a stand up comedy set for a science communication class I was taking, and it just so happened that the President of Discovery Channel at the time was in the audience. After the performance, he asked me if I was available for bat mitzvahs and birthday parties, and that got the conversation rolling. I mentioned to him I wanted to work in factual TV so I could spread my love of science to a wider audience. He introduced me to Mark Miller at Great Pacific Media and that’s where I got started.
What do you consider to be your career highlight(s)?
So far, my career highlight was working on a home renovation competition series shot here in Vancouver. It was the highlight of my career because it was my first chance in the TV world where I got to work in every step of the show – from the start of production to the last episode delivery.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to do working in factual TV?
Working in Development is both the strangest and most interesting thing I’ve done working in factual TV. It is probably the part of factual TV that most resembles my scientific training – taking that one kernel of an idea, researching it until you become the expert, taking it into multiple different directions until you find the most feasible path, and then running with it until I gets green lit.
What’s something interesting/unusual about you that most people don’t know?
I have a PhD in Physiology from the University of British Columbia. And occasionally I get to perform live science demonstrations from blowing up marshmallows to creating fire tornados to large crowds at family festivals and schools all over the Lower Mainland.
What’s your ultimate career aspiration?
My ultimate career aspiration is to create and showrun a novel factual series where I get to use both my PhD and television storytelling skills. This show would not only start a new trend in TV, but others will want to follow it. I am and have always been a blue-sky thinker and am excited to show the world what I’m made of.
