OUR STORY
Co-Founders Simon English & Oliver English
In November of 2016, we started development on our documentary film, Feeding Tomorrow, with the goal of growing a more just and regenerative food system. We interviewed farmers, entrepreneurs & organizations that are making positive changes in the world through food.
After meeting our team and seeing our films, these innovators felt a deep sense of alignment with our values and vision and started asking us for help telling their stories to the world. They were looking to control their narrative, generate awareness, raise funds, and showcase the positive impact they were making and drive action. We recognized that there was a broad opportunity to help our friends and partners and tell stories about the power of food, farming, and a new way of looking at the world.
Common Table Creative was born.
In the Fall of 2017, we left our former jobs in NYC, packed up our apartment in the East Village. We spent a month driving across the country, filming and speaking with people - learning about their challenges and excitement for the future. Throughout our journey, we packed a “food box” - Oliver & Simons “Noma’s” old wine box and filled it with everything we needed to stop off and cook a meal, and avoid any fast or processed food options.
Our food box consisted of rice, beans, baguettes, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, olive oil, cutting boards, knives, coffee, and tea. We stopped in each town to buy fresh fruits and vegetables to cook every few days. These frequent stops allowed us to interact with people in every town we stopped in and see firsthand what the food options looked like throughout the country.
After a month on the road, we settled into our home office in Venice Beach. We began to grow our community through hosting dinners and finding other innovators looking to change the world through food. Our journey has taught us the power of hospitality and film in connecting with our community and beyond. We are now growing our own food in our Front Yard farm and running both our production and hospitality business out of our home.
We showcase the work of the people who make the world a better place. We are deeply knowledgeable and passionate about food, social justice, and our environment. Our unique combination of skills, personalities, and backgrounds makes us a dynamic, passionate, and powerful team.
Our Team
Oliver English
is a Filmmaker, Chef & Food Advocate. Growing up in his family’s restaurants, he has been intimately involved in the world of food ever since. For the past several years, he led the company’s international development, opening restaurants throughout North America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. He has learned first-hand the positive and negative effects of globalization and climate change on the worlds food system, which have instilled a fierce desire to highlight these issues and inspire real change in the world through visual and experiential storytelling. Oliver is graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration and member of the American Council of young political leaders (ACYPL). Oliver serves as the Co-Founder & CEO of Common Table Creative, overseeing the companies vision, business development, hospitality, and communications.
Simon English
is a film director, editor and cinematographer. Simon is passionate about telling stories that raise awareness that drive change to environmental and sustainability issues facing our planet. Growing up his family’s restaurant business, Simon found an early passion for filming in kitchens, on farms, with chefs, and telling stories about the power of food. While living in NYC, Simon helped launch and served as the senior videographer for Broadway Style Guide and Today Tix. His reel includes Tony Award coverage, short narrative films, music videos, documentaries, commercials, event coverage. Simon is a graduate of the New York Film Academy. Simon serves as Co-founder and Creative Director, for Common Table Creative, overseeing all cinematography, editing, photography and production.
