Media agency MEC’s head of content Tim Flattery has added to his growing list of TV credits with the US launch of Godfather of Pittsburgh, a gritty eight-part reality TV program about a shady Pennsylvania wiseguy who runs a restaurant and nightclub empire.

Flattery developed the program while living in Los Angeles as head of TV development at Grainey Pictures in 2012/13, just before joining MEC in October last year. Graney Pictures’ agents Innovative Artists and CAA sold Godfather of Pittsburgh to cable channel A&E, with Flattery listed as executive producer.

The program is currently airing on A&E as well as being available on Netflix, and has its own billboard on Sunset Boulevard.

“Developing and selling a TV program in a competitive market like the US was a great experience and the lessons I learnt from it are ones that I can bring to my current role as head of content at MEC,” said Flattery. “From an advertising perspective, branded content is the future as many smart marketers have already discovered.”

Godfather of Pittsburgh is the latest program in Tim’s list of TV credits, having created and acted as executive producer on multiple reality and documentary series in Australia.

His TV credits include creating the award-winning No Leave No Life for Tourism Australia (Seven Network), the teen competition reality series The Pursuit For Nintendo (Nine Network) and the drama-reality series Sudden Impact for Transport Accident Commission (Nine Network) among others.

In total, Flattery has been involved in creating more than $70 million worth of productions and upwards of 50 episodes screened on network TV (31 in prime-time) in Australia.

He was also involved in creating Marketing Dividends in association with the AANA, a new content series airing on Sky News Business.