Bozeman Montana + Los Angeles California
A Premium Bluechip Natural History Studio
Stronghold Studios is joint venture between GRIZZLY CREEK FILMS and SONDERHIVE INC. led by Thomas Winston, Jason Carey and Lance Nichols, Stronghold marries the Emmy award-winning natural history cinematography and storytelling that Grizzly Creek is recognized for, with an LA-based production studio drawing the best producers, editors, directors and writers in nonfiction. We aim to redefine how a premium natural history production company does business in the US; delivering on the promise of exceptional blue-chip production while pushing both the narratives and audience appeal beyond the genre’s traditional confines.
Thomas WinstoN
Tom’s passion comes from his roots in the field as a natural history director, producer, and cinematographer. He founded Grizzly Creek Films in 2007 with Expedition Grizzly, a one-hour special for the National Geographic Channel that told the story of the resurgence of grizzly bears from the brink of extinction in Yellowstone National Park. The success of that film gave birth to America the Wild, a series that premiered with the launch of the NatGeo Wild network and went on to be adapted into an award-winning interactive video game in collaboration with Microsoft XBox Studios. Grizzly Creek Films continued to grow and produced premium long-form series and films for the Smithsonian Channel (Epic Yellowstone), the History Channel (Secret Earth), and PBS (The Forgotten Coast, Rewind). Tom’s films have been screened and honored at the world’s premier festivals, including Tribeca, BFI London, Mill Valley, Jackson Wild, Wildscreen and The International Rome Film Festival. Based in Bozeman, Montana and embedded in one of the last intact ecosystems in North America, Tom proudly serves on the board of directors for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition — an organization committed to protecting healthy lands, water and wildlife in the 20 million acres surrounding the “World’s First National Park”.
Jason Carey
As a co-founder of Sonderhive Inc., Jason is known for building successful and rewarding partnerships, for holding the creative bar high and for delivering quality and imaginative content. A stalwart writer, director, producer and executive in nonfiction storytelling, he joined Animal Planet as an Executive Producer in 2006 and quickly ascended the ranks to SVP of Production in 2008. While overseeing all content at the network, Jason was a part of the core team behind the “Surprisingly Human” rebrand that grew the network into a perennial top 20-cable channel. His Executive Producer credits included the award winning and Emmy nominated Whale Wars and the genre-busting Treehouse Masters. After Animal Planet, Jason became a key member of Red Bull Media House where, as Head of Original Programming (U.S.), he helped launch RBTV, Red Bull’s global digital television platform. Jason would go on to serve as Head of Programming West Coast for ITV America, supervising all content produced out of the ITV Los Angeles studio. With over 15 years of experience running production, development and programming units for large media companies, Jason is poised to lead in an industry that is hungry for talented and experienced creators who are willing to challenge the traditional norms of storytelling.
Lance Nichols
Co-founder of Sonderhive Inc., Lance has always focused on building a unique and varied career in nonfiction storytelling. He began as a freelance writer, director and producer with Actual Reality, Evolution Media, Rocket Science Laboratories, Magical Elves and Mark Burnett Productions. His work spanned diverse projects across the industry including major network reality tentpoles (Big Brother, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition), documentary series (30 Days, The Real L Word, Into The Pride, Freshman Diaries) and the feature documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Lance next turned his attention towards development, first joining the team at Cheri Sundae Productions and then rising through the ranks at Mandalay Sports Media and Rampante, a Time Inc. company. Following a successful collaboration with Jason Carey at Red Bull Media House, he was brought back to Time Inc. as the VP of Development and Executive Producer, heading up development and driving collaborations with industry leading producers and creators (Jerry Bruckheimer, Blumhouse Television, Glen Zipper, Alex Winter). Now at Sonderhive, Lance is focused on developing and producing documentaries and social content for influential athletes and celebrities (Julian Edelman, Pedro Martinez, Jessica Alba). His unique insight into the fast-evolving media industry drives Lance to push on the front edge of nonfiction content across all platforms.