Philip J Day


winner Philip J Day is a British film producer and television showrunner. His most recent movie, The Russian Bride, starring Corbin Bernsen and Kristina Pimenova, has been chosen to close the Fanasporto Festival on March 2nd, 2019, and will be released worldwide on March 29th, 2019 by VMI Distribution. His previous movies The Amityville Terror and Euroclub continue to find popular audiences since their respective releases. His TV shows have been awarded a Peabody, two Emmy's, seven Emmy nominations, eighteen Telly Awards, and multiple international awards. His credits include, NBC, National Geographic Channel, Discovery, BBC TV, Channel Four, The History Channel, Science Channel, Travel Channel, TLC and PBS.
As a creative showrunner, Day collaborates with major production companies on multiple popular TV series, such as Blood Relatives and Love Kills for Investigation Discovery, for Discovery, Sex Sent Me to the ER for TLC, and National Geographic Explorer.
In 2008, Day formed his production company Edge West Productions, which develops and produces films and TV shows. Between 2008 and 2018 he wrote, produced, and directed more than 100 hours of TV and produced three feature films. Many of these were co-produced by his Edge West production company such as, Curiosity Volcano Time Bomb, Inside Rio Carnival, The Real Roswell, Tunnel to a Lost World, Lost Cities of the Amazon, The Skyjacker That Got Away, Great Escape: The Final Secrets, and Nasca Lines The Buried Secrets.

Early life

Philip James Day was born in Harrogate, United Kingdom. He and his family moved to Kabwe, Zambia, when he was eleven years old.

Family

Philip is son of Hazel Day, a notable actress and opera singer and Brian Day, a chartered accountant. Hazel is most well known for performances with the York light Opera Company. Her most popular performances were in Kiss Me Kate, Song of Norway, and finally Kismet.
Philip Day is the youngest of three children. His brother, Martyn Day was described by The Times as one of the most powerful and influential lawyers in the UK.

Education

While living in Zambia, Day attended the Peterhouse Boys' School in the neighboring country of Marondera, Zimbabwe, but moved back to England to finish at Ackworth School in West Yorkshire. Day then attended film school at Harrow College. He obtained a BA in Photography, Film, and Television.

Career

Philip J Day has produced three feature films and some two hundred TV credits as producer, director and writer on network shows. He has specialized in social, historical, and scientific films using elaborate recreations and dynamic interviews to tell his stories.
In recent years he has been working as a freelance Executive Producer and Showrunner on TV series such as Stan Lee's Lucky Man for Sky 1, "Navy Seals: America's Secret Warriors" for History, "Polar Bear Town" for the Smithsonian Institution, Blood Relatives and Love Kills for Investigation Discovery, for Discovery and Sex Sent Me to the ER for TLC.
For three years, between 2016 and 2018, Day worked with notable comic book author Stan Lee on Stan Lee's Lucky Man. Day also worked with director Robert Rodriguez for the highly regarded BBC showTen Minute Film School.
Day wrote and directed nearly twenty TV shows for National Geographic including a film about D. B. Cooper, a man who has eluded the FBI for over thirty years.
Many of his films explore ancient civilizations. Lost Cities of the Amazon for National Geographic investigates the tragic loss of life to indigenous Amerindians along the Amazon River from disease like influenza brought unwittingly by Spanish Conquistadors after 1492. Day also works on more scientific based series. His documentary on ancient medicine explores the origins of plastic surgery to 3,000 years before Hollywood face-lifts.
His two-hour film about the Luxor massacre Massacre in Luxor was considered a marquee documentary for both PBS and BBC.
Day established a strong relationship with American broadcasters, such as PBS the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. Day's most notable films during this period include Hello Mr. President, which won him a prestigious Peabody Award and an Emmy Nomination. The eminent journalist Sir Charles Wheeler wrote and narrated the documentary on Lyndon B Johnson. The documentary spawned a multi-part TV series called 'The Whitehouse Tapes' History Channel. The prestigious series went on to win an Emmy Award, five Emmy Award nominations, a Royal Television Society award, and multiple other awards and nominations.
In 2000, Day created an award-winning series for TLC called Why Doctors Make Mistakes. A year later Day produced the highly rated TV show High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas which partnered the director with Emmy Award winning actor Ray Liotta. A year later Day used his Hollywood contacts to launch a major BBC/Discovery three-part series, The Hollywood Machine, The series examined the key reasons behind blockbuster success and dismal failure. Denzel Washington, Hugh Jackman, and Jude Law are just a few of the luminaries who appear in the series. The Times of London, described the series as "highly entertaining", The Observer wrote it was "a must for all aspirants of film".
In 2001 Day directed the International Emmy Award Nominee Challenger: Go For Launch.
In 2006 Day moved to California where he set up his production company Edge West Productions. Between 2008 and 2018 Edge West won thirteen Telly Awards for productions like The Skyjacker That Got Away for National Geographic Channel. In 2010 Philip J. Day was nominated for an Emmy Award at the 2010 News and Documentary Emmy Awards for the film The Skyjacker That Got Away. In both 2014 & 2015 his series was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award.

Held At Gunpoint

In 2009 Day and his team had been filming in the desert of southern Peru on a film about the Nazca Lines for National Geographic Channel. At around 3.45 am five armed men, wearing face masks, scaled a twenty-foot wall to break into the hotel where Day and his team were asleep. The assailants first took the receptionist and hotel manager hostage at gunpoint. The receptionist was bound and gagged while the manager was forced to provide a master key for all the bedrooms. The attackers had specifically come to steal expensive film equipment. They beat up several people and stole some equipment, but the actions of hotel staff saved the crew from a more severe and potentially life-threatening robbery.

Collaborations

Philip Day has worked with many major celebrities including Stan Lee on Stan Lee's Lucky Man, Mick Jagger Passion, Pride & Penalties, Henry Rollins on Inside the Warrior Gene, Craig Ferguson in My Friend Hellman & Friday at the Dome, Lisa Ling on National Geographic's Explorer,
Alan Rickman Tango With Ninagawa,
Ray Liotta High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas,
Brian Cox The Late Show,
Peter Coyote National Geographic Explorer,
Akiva Goldsman, Ridley Scott, Kathleen Kennedy Hollywood Inc.,
Morwenna Banks Signals, and
Jon Ronson The Ronson Mission.

Credits