UK’s C4 invests in Apple TV+ prodco Paper Entertainment

Tehran

Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund has taken a minority stake in Julien Leroux’s Paper Entertainment.

London-based producer paper was formally launched earlier this year and is developing, financing and producing TV content in partnership with talent and producers around the world.

It is onboard as a co-producer on the recently announced second season of AppleTV+’s drama Tehran and made its first hire in April, with Caroline Amer joining as development executive.

Leroux was most recently SVP of global scripted co-productions at Cineflix Media and before that held roles at the UK arm of France’s Newen Group. The exec, who was an executive producer on the first season of Tehran, struck the co-production deal between Apple, Cineflix and Israeli network Kan 11, which was announced in June.

Caroline Murphy, head of C4’s Indie Growth Fund, said: “Julien has an infectious passion and drive and is committed to creating high end, quality content. We’re really excited about the future of Paper Entertainment and we believe that Channel 4’s investment will help propel Paper Entertainment to become a real success story.”

Leroux added: “Paper Entertainment aims to create global content which is both entertaining and meaningful and we can’t think of a better partner to enable us to achieve this.”

The deal is the latest investment by C4’s Indie Growth Fund, which earlier this year became a minority stakeholder in Uplands Television, the indie set up by David Olusoga and Mike Smith.