Spencer Foley is a Vancouver-based filmmaker, writer and producer whose work spans narrative film, television and commercial production.
He produced the short film The Fish & The Sea, which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short in 2019. The film was acquired by Travelling Distribution and later aired on CBC. He also produced Thomas’ follow-up short, Cake Day, which was longlisted for the 2021 Academy Awards and went on to win Best BC Short at VIFF, with screenings at LA Shorts, Fantasia and the Academy Award-qualifying Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival. Cake Day was also named a Top 10 semifinalist in the Coppola Short Film Competition and was subsequently distributed by H264 and broadcast on CBC.
Across more than 15 years in production, Spencer has worked alongside filmmakers across narrative, television and commercial work. His credits include Production Manager on two New Regency / Automatik / Oddfellows series, Gaslight, starring Jessica Rothe and Kelsey Asbille, and Ellen, starring Lin Shaye, as well as GenZeroes, the first NFT live-action series, starring Paul “Big Show” Wight and created by members of the team behind Syfy’s Van Helsing.
In the commercial world, Spencer has produced work for leading Canadian and international production companies, including U.S. companies such as Skunk, Furlined, Reverie, Object & Animal, 1stAveMachine and others. Working between directors, agencies, clients and crews, he has built a career around finding practical ways to protect ambitious creative ideas and bring them to the screen.
More recently, that experience has begun to take Spencer behind the camera. Over the past two years, he has directed and guided second units on commercial productions, building on a career spent working closely alongside accomplished directors and cinematographers. It is a natural progression of his work as a writer and filmmaker—combining an understanding of narrative and performance with an intimate knowledge of how productions are actually made.
