Who we are

Cindy Cowan is an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated film producer with an extensive and successful career in the entertainment industry. She is the founder of Bayleaf Entertainment (formerly Cindy Cowan Entertainment), a production company known for its diverse range of film and television projects.

Cowan co-founded Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) in 1995 with Graham King, where she helped shape it into a leading film production and foreign sales company. During her tenure at IEG, the company achieved numerous successes, including the Emmy-nominated *If These Wall*s *Could Talk *starring Demi Moore, Cher and Sissy Spacek and the Academy Award-winning *Traffic* starring Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones and Benicio Del Toro. Cowan also produced *Very Bad Things* Starring Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz and Jon Favreau, Dr. T & *the Women* starring Richard Gere, and the United Nations Award-winning *Savior*, starring Denis Quaid among many others.

After founding her own company, Cowan continued to produce high-profile projects, such as *Scorched* starring Woody Harrelson, *Fifty Dead Men Walking*, starring Ben Kinglsey  and *Red Lights *starring Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Olsen and Cillian Murphy, which was the highest-grossing film at Sundance in 2012. She also produced the viral horror hit *Smiley*. Her recent works include *Arkansas* starring Vince Vaughn , Liam Hemsworth and John Malkovich, *Miracle on 42nd Street* (an Emmy-winning documentary), Haunting in Wicker Park, starring Jamie Campbell Bower and Erin Moriarity,*Cleaner *starring Clive Owen and Daisy Ridley and the Telly Award-winning short *La Ruta*. Currently, Cowan is working on several upcoming projects, including *The Untitled ‘NSync Project, Eye in the Sky, The Untitled John Lennon Project and a new Thriller titled *Eden Falls * Her company is expanding into television with projects like Ellis Island, a historical drama, and an unscripted series with MGM focusing on the rebranding of Maxim Magazine.

A committed philanthropist, Cowan is involved with several nonprofit organizations, including Music for Relief,  We Care Solar, Little Kids Rock, and the World Woman Foundation. She has received numerous honors for her work, including the 2018 Woman of the Year Award and the 2019 Humanitarian of the Year Award. Cowan is a graduate of Tulane University and has pursued graduate courses towards her masters in Psychology at Harvard. In addition to her work in film and philanthropy, she is a world-class equestrian, having won the "World Champion" title multiple times in American Saddlebred five-gaited and equitation competitions.

She is also an accomplished songwriter having written for artists such as Howard Hewitt, Sinitta, amd Engelbert Humperdink