Paul McAleavey

Paul McAleavey
Editor

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in the UK where I studied Politics and History at Middlesex University in London, graduating in 1998.

I rose through the ranks very quickly and became an Avid Editor at the young age of 23 in London, working on various BBC shows and post-production houses in Soho, London.

I have received many nominations and awards in the UK for my work including a ‘Broadcast Hot Shot’ award for my unique work on the BBC Comedy ‘Don’t Watch That Watch This’ in which I was one of the first editors to combine current news footage with composited comedic effects.

I also received a Royal Television Society nomination for my work on BBC Blast.

Besides being an editor I have produced and directed over 20 shorts. I received several awards for short films, including a nomination for Best Newcomer Award at the Raindance Film Festival.

I won Best Comedy at the Portobello Film Festival as well winning an award at the International Film Festival of Ireland for a Science Fiction short I produced.

After working on a feature film ‘The Reeds’ which was released nationwide in the UK, I was picked up by the leading post production agency in London, IPC, my career grew from strength to strength..

As well as working on the most popular programs in the UK including ‘Big Brother’, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘Comic Relief’ as a lead/finishing editor on AVID SYMPHONY.

I also worked on very successful documentaries such as BBC’s ‘Leonardo and his Dream Machines’, ‘Panorama’, ‘Steven Spielberg: A Man and His Movies’, BBC’s ‘Wildest Dreams’ and a two-part documentary on Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile. two-part documentary on Augusto Pinochet, amongst many documentaries for A&E.

 My international career began in Belfast, Northern Ireland on a Channel 4 Comedy ‘Comedy Lab’, and then went on to Cardiff, Wales where I worked as a Lead Editor on a Sean Connery documentary.

I then landed work in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq and UAE where I worked for three years on human rights films. I have traveled extensively throughout the region to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, over a three year period.

This work led me to be hired by the United Nations in Kenya, Africa,.

Whilst in Kenya, I worked on several Documentaries sponsored by the African Union to raise awareness of the plight of Somalia and its people. The films were distributed worldwide via social media for greatest social impact.

After that project was completed I moved my young family from the UK to Chile, where I lived and worked for two years on various promos and trailers.

At the end of those two years I was sponsored by the leading post agency in New York City,

Pipeline Entertainment  to  live and work in the US on an ‘Outstanding Alien’ O1 Visa. I worked in Manhatten predominantly.

Whilst living in NYC for six years, I worked on numerous projects for Pipeline for companies such as Zodiac, National Geo Discovery, Leftfield and Optomen.

I moved to Los Angeles two years ago and have worked for Entertainment One, Ample, Ugly Brother and Diamond Docs and have been working predominantly in Discovery ID and Feature Film Documentaries for Netflix, working remotely and at various production companies.

RECENT WORK