Fifty years in. Just getting started.
From a single automated payroll system built in 1976 to a platform supporting productions around the world, here's more about where EP came from, who leads it today, and where we're headed next.
Our History
EP began in 1976, when Bob Draney, a NASA guidance systems engineer, and Jack Peterson, a musician embedded in Hollywood’s creative community, built the first automated payroll and accounting system designed specifically for film and television production. Little House on the Prairie was one of the first productions to use it.
EP introduced the industry’s first automated payroll and accounting system designed for film and television in 1976, followed by the industry’s first dedicated residuals payment system in 1988. EP also built the industry’s first comprehensive global production incentives database, and launched EP Cares in 2014, the first private healthcare exchange built specifically for production workers.
What started as a single U.S.-focused payroll system has grown into a full production finance and production management platform. EP’s portfolio now includes industry-standard budgeting and scheduling technology Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling, the Emmy Award-winning SyncOnSet, and the cloud-based Production Finance Studio that unifies payroll, accounting and reporting in one place. Through the acquisition of the iconic Central Casting, EP became the leading provider of background actor casting and payroll in the US. EP also built insight solutions Payroll & Labor Insights and Production Accounting Analytics to help productions make smarter, data-driven decisions. EP has expanded internationally across Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and today supports tens of thousands of productions globally.
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Our Leadership
Mark Goldstein has served as EP’s President and CEO since 2002.
Yes. Several members of EP’s executive team have been with the company for a decade or more, giving EP’s leadership direct experience guiding the business through multiple industry cycles, from the shift to cloud-based production finance to the pandemic’s disruption of global production.
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Our Strength and Future
Yes. EP maintains a disciplined financial approach which has kept the business financially stable and able to keep investing in the products and services our clients need, even through industry-wide disruption like the pandemic and the production slowdown that followed.
TPG Capital has been EP’s investment partner since 2019, supporting EP’s long-term growth and investment in technology, people and international expansion.
Yes. EP continues to invest in its people, its technology platform and artificial intelligence, improving products like SmartAccounting, Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling, and building new tools for the next 50 years of production.
Yes. EP has grown through targeted acquisitions, including Moneypenny (2022) and CASHét (2025), and expanded its international operations across Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
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